The Chase
by Jensti
Summary: Following 'The Lift' incident Mai and Seto need to work out how things stand between them. If you fancy reading a light hearted romantic/comedy without too much angst - you might enjoy this! Sequel to 'The Lift'
1. Running Scared

A/N - This is a sequel to 'The Lift' and, like that story, is set a number of years after the Battle City Tournament.

Chapter 1 - Settling a score

OooooO

In a grotty late night café in central London, Stacey stared at her own blurry reflection in the plastic counter-top. It was only thirty minutes into the seven hour shift that would take her into the not-so-early hours of the morning. She was trying to resist checking her watch for the third time.

A sudden cold breeze jolted her back to reality and she looked up as a tall man entered. Scowling as he looked around him, Stacey thought he might turn around and walk straight out again. He seemed to be considering it but, looking out at the heavily falling rain; he appeared to change his mind and instead sat down on a dirty orange plastic chair in the furthest corner.

Stacey raised her eyebrows in happy surprise realising that the guy wasn't the usual calibre of customer she was becoming depressingly used to. She stood up straight and poked her head through the door that led to the squalid back room.

'Carly. Oi Carly!' she hissed at her colleague who was sitting crossed legged on a table, enjoying the peace and quiet before the rush of the theatre and night club chuck out times. 'Get your arse out here. We've got a customer.'

'Can't you deal wiv it?' came the whiney reply. 'I'm watchin' Big Bruva,'.

'Bugger off, I'm not doing your job for you! Anyway,' Stacey gave her friend a small smile, 'I don't recon you're gonna mind this one too much!'

Carly raised an eyebrow and jumped down from the table. 'What's the score?'

'I would rate him a nine or ten.'

'That good?' Carly marvelled, impressed.

She manoeuvred past Stacey and looked across the room at their only customer who was intently studying some sort of device.

'Ohhh, nice,' she whispered without taking her eyes off him.

She took a quick glance at herself in the reflection of the window, smoothed back her hair and pulled her v-neck top down a bit to show off her cleavage.

Stacey patted her on the shoulder. 'Go get 'im tiger!' she laughed.

OooooO

Owen McIntire ran down a dirty side street of London's Soho district. He kept glancing behind him and his expression was one of terror. In the hammering rain he could no longer see his pursuer and, turning a corner, he briefly harboured the hope that he had finally lost him. Or them. It was so difficult to tell as they all looked the same, black suits and sunglasses, even at 11 o'clock at night. All he knew is that they had been on his trail for days.

His counterpart had called him the previous week, sounding panicked and desperate. He had begged Owen to take him in, to protect him from people who were 'trying to get him'. Owen's heart had turned to stone, knowing that his worst fears had been confirmed.

'Stay with me? STAY with me!' he had shouted his own fears making him angry. 'You shouldn't even be phoning me you stupid bastard!'

He had quickly terminated the call and, holding the phone in one shaking hand, had contemplated his next move.

He knew he had to get out of his home town; it was too small, too obvious, too easy to search. He could try and find somewhere in the countryside, nice and remote or, or he could go to London – hide in the crowds. He had hesitated for a few more moments, his body frozen as his mind whirred feverishly.

Finally Owen had made his decision; he had gathered together every piece of paperwork in his tiny converted flat and had burnt everything in the small Victorian fireplace. Grabbing a few possessions and snatching up a small carryall he had shoved everything roughly inside. He had closed the door quietly behind him and, as he walked further down the street towards the nearest train station, he had stopped briefly. Pulling his phone out of his pocket he had dropped it on the floor and had stepped on it heavily; nodding, satisfied, when the screen had splintered. Lifting the lid off one of his neighbour's bins he had thrown the phone away.

Since that day Owen had lain low. He had found an empty building on the outskirts of central London, somewhere he had never even visited before now. He used only the cash in his pocket, hastily withdrawn at the cash point on the station platform. He hadn't contacted anyone – not even his girlfriend. But still they had found him.

The previous day he had been returning 'home' with a few groceries and that's when he'd seen them. Two guys dressed in their black suits and dark glasses, like extras from that alien film. Owen hadn't stuck around for them to spot him instead jumping on the next bus heading to the West End.

OooooO

Roland smiled faintly watching as McIntire staggered to a halt at the end of the street, hesitating briefly as he tried to guess which was the best way to go.

The pursuit had been in active progress for over an hour so far it was going almost exactly to plan. The seemingly random configuration of roads and the multitude of tiny alleyways that made up the centre of London had proved difficult but the target didn't appear to be familiar with the streets and, with detailed maps and a ten-strong team of professionals, they had managed to gain the advantage and maintain it. McIntire didn't know it but, as he zigzagged wildly from street to street, he was heading exactly where they wanted him to go.

Roland surveyed the street, making sure his next directions would be accurate. It was clearly a fruit and vegetable market during the day and the rotting leftovers collected against the curb of the road and in the doorways of some cheap-looking shops. At the end of the street he could see the garish lights of the types of establishments that were still open at this hour, shops selling porn, sex toys and women. The rain soaked street glowed with the bright colours of the neon lights, turning the tarmac into a river of pinks and reds.

'He's just exited left at the end of Berwick Street Market, he's heading back onto Wardour,' he barked into his communicator. 'Jackson, have you picked him up?' he waited a few seconds for a reply. 'Jac-'

'Got him sir. He's still heading – hold on, another right turn into…' there was the sound of running, 'he's onto Shaftsbury heading North-West towards Piccad – Damn it!'

'What? Tell me what's going on?'

There was more swearing and Jackson's voice could be heard shouting for people to get out of his way. When he came back on the line he sounded flustered.

'A play must've just finished. There're people everywhere... I can't see him.'

Without bothering to respond, Roland switched to the next frequency. 'Murdoch, keep an eye out, McIntire should be heading your way.'

'I see him,' Murdoch said quietly, 'what are my orders?'

'Just follow him covertly for the moment and keep us posted. Mr Kaiba wants to make the final move himself.'

'Understood.'

Murdoch detached himself from the shadows of the side alley, and joined the crowds of the busy London street. Shivering slightly from the cold, he shucked off his black jacket, removed his glasses and blended himself with the milling theatre goers. All night the ten-strong team had been herding McIntire, intimidating him with their matching appearance, letting him know that there was no way out. Murdoch saw the exhaustion on the man's face, and knew that the end of the pursuit was in sight.

OooooO

His eyes darting from side to side like a trapped animal, Owen began to slow his pace. He ducked into a darkened shop doorway and looked out onto the street, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He watched the happy people casually wondering towards the nearest tube, his intense gaze picking out anyone wearing black.

A man hurried past him carrying his jacket over his arm, he was smiling and calling out a woman's name as he made his way through the surrounding throng, apparently trying to catch up with someone. Owen had already turned back to the oncoming crowd when Murdoch glanced back at him.

OooooO

Working in Soho, Stacey and Carly were used to seeing all sorts: exuberant drag queens, surly prostitutes, drugged up clubbers and everything in-between. There was something distinctly different about this guy though and both girls were fascinated.

He had ordered only coffee and had sat on his own in the furthest corner, barely saying a word, for over an hour which was the typical behaviour of one of the area's habitual tramps who would pay the minimum just to have somewhere warm to go, especially on a night like this. But this guy sure as hell didn't look like a tramp. Neither did he look like he was exactly strapped for cash. For starters there was that expensive looking handheld thingy that had kept him occupied since the moment he'd sat down.

They had both been making bets about what it was since he'd first drawn it out from the inside pocket of his long overcoat. Stacey guessed that it was a mini TV screen, whilst Carly seemed convinced that it was some sort of new gaming console.

Every time Carly checked on him, which she did with a rather suspicious regularity, she tried to catch a glimpse of the screen or to properly make out the words that she could faintly hear coming from it. As the time had dragged on and her efforts continued to fail the two girls had become more and more curious. On her seventh visit to the 'well fit' if slightly 'narky' guy, she deliberately dropped a tea spoon on the floor and, when he bent to pick it up she leant over and took a long hard look at the device.

The man sat back up and held out the spoon to her. The look in his eyes was like being doused with ice cold water and, giving her best shot at an innocent smile, Carly quickly retreated.

'I cannot believe you just did that!' Stacey said in a shocked undertone. 'It was well obvious!'

'Is he still looking?' Carly asked, with her back to the room, feeling a little awkward about her subterfuge.

'Nah, he's gone back to his… well, what is it then?'

'I dunno. It 'ad a screen on it but it din't look like no computer game,' she whispered to Stacey. 'The screen's got all these little dots movin' about on a map that looks like round 'ere. He weren't doin' nothin' wiv it, just watchin' an' listening,' they both looked across at him, 'and there was this like commentree that went wiv it.'

'Commentary?'

'Yeah, like all these commands an' stuff. Like 'follow on foot, heading East West',' she tried to imitate the accent she had heard.

'What's that supposed to be, Indian or sommin?' Stacey teased.

'Shuddup!' Carly gave her friend a playful slap on the arm. 'Anyway, it sounded like some sort of pursuit were goin' on.'

'You recon he's a member of the old bill?'

They both stared at him thoughtfully.

'He don't look like no copper,' Carly concluded.

Clearly sensing that he was being watched, the man suddenly scowled and looked up at them both.

Blushing terribly, both girls ducked quickly behind the counter and dissolved into a fit of giggles.

The man stood up and grabbed his coat from where he had placed it, carefully across the table. Surreptitiously he tensed and un-tensed the muscles in his thighs trying to bring them back to life after so long sat in the hard plastic chair. He looked again at the 'empty' counter and heard the muffled giggles of the two girls. He rolled his eyes and, taking out a ten pound note, he put it down on the table and placed a tomato shaped ketchup bottle on top of it.

He slipped the hand held device into his trouser pocket and left the café.

Stacey peeked out from behind the counter. Registering that it had indeed been the tall guy who had left, the first thing she did was check his table for money. She saw the edge of the orange coloured note and allowed herself to relax slightly.

She elbowed Carly who was still giggling uncontrollably.

'Hey, you've missed the grand exit.'

Carly took a deep breath to calm herself down and then she too took a peek.

Shivering in the cold night air the man took his coat in both hands and flung it around him, deftly sliding his arms into the sleeves as the bottom of the coat flared around him dramatically.

The two girls, watching through the rain slicked window, both sighed happily at the sight. If they had known that he was of one of the world's richest bachelors, they probably would have fainted on the spot.

OooooO

Seto Kaiba had been following the pursuit with interest, watching on his potable screen as the red dots of his team began to converge on the famous London tourist spot.

'Are we ready?' he spoke into his communicator.

'I believe so sir,' Roland replied, 'Murdoch is in covert pursuit. We think McIntire will try to access the underground system at Piccadilly and we have a number of people based at the bottom of each escalator. He should be pretty well cornered once he's there.'

'Are we happy that we can do this without causing a scene – I understand that there's actually a saying in this country that makes reference to how overcrowded this area is.'

'I'm pretty certain that we can extract him with the minimum of fuss. I took the liberty of 'obtaining' some London Underground security passes. If he does become a problem then they should do the trick.'

'Good. I'm heading there now,' Seto signed off.


	2. Catching Up, Falling Down

A/N - If you're wondering where Mai is, well, she's back in New York and will be in the next chapter (promise!). Seto just has to sort out a few things before he can concentrate on any burgeoning relationship. These two chapters are me experimenting a bit with style so I'd be interested to hear if you feel it works. Oh, I always forget to mention - I don't own Yugioh - just in case you were wondering!

OooooO

In the glow of the yellow lighting Murdoch stood holding a phone to one ear, his head bowed so that his face was hidden. Anyone watching would assume that he was having a conversation. He was in one of four phone booths in the foyer of Piccadilly Station and he was taking a big risk.

McIntire had stayed in the doorway for longer than anticipated and Murdoch felt that he had no other option than to carry on walking. The look on Owen's face had been one of a hunted animal, one that would be taking no risks and would trust no one. If Murdoch had chosen to stay outside within sight of the man then he knew he would have been spotted and so he made the decision to place himself on the predicted route and put himself out of visual range.

If everything went to plan then McIntire would head this way. If not, then the shit would hit the fan and the rest of the team would have to make up for Murdoch's mistake. After the lift incident, where Murdoch felt sure he had somehow annoyed Kaiba, he was keen to prove his worth and show that he was good at the leg work, if not the communication.

His eyes were fixed intently on the stairs that led form the North-East entrance into the station watching for the emergence of the man he was looking for, hoping the whole thing hadn't already been screwed up. He was in view of two entrances but there were four from this station and Murdoch was contemplating changing his position so that he would be able to see the ticket barriers when McIntire walked in.

He was crouched low so that he would be able to see into the station as early as possible and, as his nervous eyes scanned the large space, Murdoch pressed closer into the confines of his booth, thankful for the sudden crowd of people who obscured him from view.

'Team leader, this is Murdoch,' he whispered into the communicator that was couched in the palm of his hand beneath the phone, 'target has entered Piccadilly Station and is heading for the – wait.'

As the crowds moved on Murdoch expected to see McIntire heading left away from him and towards the barriers, instead he was startled to see him walk past less than ten feet away, heading towards an exit. In his surprise Murdoch stared at McIntire and, as the nervous man glanced around yet again, their eyes met.

OooooO

It was definitely him, the man with the black jacket on his arm, the man who was calling to the woman – but there was no woman there now. And that look he'd given him…

Owen felt his stomach turn to ice and his heart gave a great thud. _Of course they haven't lost me,_ he thought desperately, _they're everywhere. I'm never going to get away! They'll hunt me down, like they did the rest and then…_

He glanced again at the man in the booth. He had his face turned away again but he was talking urgently into what appeared to be the phone, although the angle looked peculiar. Another darting glance in his direction was enough to set Owen off running.

He raced towards the nearest exit and along the tunnel. Ahead of him he could see the stairs that led out and, above them, the neon façade of a bar.

He hurled himself at the stairs taking them two, three at a time, clutching hold of the brass banister to help haul himself up as quickly as possible. Behind him he could hear the echoing footsteps of the other man. He heard a breathless American accent calling directions to an unseen colleague.

Owen looked again at the top of the stairs, he wouldn't have been surprised if another clone in a black suit had appeared at the top to grab him but instead he emerged into the rain again on an empty side street. He hastily looked down the street in both directions, one way led to the bustling crowds of Piccadilly Circus and the other led along the quiet street where bin bags lined the back of shops and restaurants. He could run in either direction but the feel of his heart pounding heavily against his ribs told him that he couldn't go on. He looked again at the bar in front of him and made an immediate decision.

OooooO

'He's entered a bar – 'Jewel' on … Glasshouse Street. What are your orders?' Murdoch panted into his communicator.

'Stay where you are. Try to see if there are any other exits but stay within reach of the main door. I'm on my way.'

Suddenly Murdoch's communicator was yanked out of his hands. Turning quickly he found himself looking into the impassive face of Kaiba.

'Roland, I'm here. We're going inside to get this son of a bitch.' He stated coolly.

'Sir I would really advise –' began a suddenly flustered Roland but the communicator was already being flung back to Murdoch who was left staring after Kaiba's coat tails.

'Um, we're going in,' he repeated quickly and switched off the communicator, cutting off Roland's desperate appeals for them both to wait.

Hurriedly he followed Kaiba into the bar.

Instantly he felt swallowed up by the noise and heat. People were packed into the space so tightly he could barely move between them. He could see Kaiba ahead of him, the man's tall figure seeming to glide through the crowds whilst Murdoch himself had to twist and nudge and apologise his way through.

When he finally caught up with his boss, he found that Kaiba had somehow managed to get the attention of a member of the bar staff despite the throngs of other people waiting to be served. The barman was nodding and indicating some stairs that were on the right of the bar.

'- barged right through, caused a bit of a stir. Oi!-' he began to call as Kaiba immediately headed for the stairs, 'who are you anyway?'

Murdoch quickly reached into his pocket and drew out a card and pushed it towards the man.

'London Underground,' he stated firmly in his best English accent which the barman took to be Australian, 'official tube business.'

He smiled winningly and turned towards the stairs to follow Kaiba who had already disappeared.

OooooO

Owen's eyes quickly flicked around the upstairs bar searching for another door, another set of stairs, anything that would allow his flight to continue. He pushed through the crowd which was thinner than it had been downstairs. Through the forest of bodies he caught sight of a door; the only visible exit from the room. Owen made his way through towards it. At the last moment he turned so that he was facing the room, pleased to see that no one was paying him any attention, Owen moved quickly backwards pushing the door open with his elbow and silently slipping through.

OooooO

Seto reached the top of the stairs and stood for a moment surveying the scene. Behind him he could hear Murdoch racing up the stairs to catch him, but he didn't look around. He scanned the faces of the people near him, some of whom had stopped what they were doing and were staring openly at the tall, determined-looking stranger.

Murdoch came to a stop beside his boss trying hard to keep his breathing under control so he didn't appear unfit.

'The rest of the team should be here soon.' Seto said still not making eye contact. 'Stay here until you see them arriving and then follow me.'

'Sure thing, umm, where are you –' but Seto had already moved away, striding confidently towards the door on the other side of the room.

OooooO

McIntire had raced up another flight of stairs and now stood, his heart pounding, in front of a dirty grey metal door. He pushed down on the bar and lurched onto the roof terrace, the heavy rain mingling with his sweat and the cool air soothing his straining lungs.

He let the door clang shut behind him and ran to the edge of the building where a low level wall separated the space from the view of the street below. Looking over he let out a frightened whimper as he saw three men, in black suits, running towards the building.

He jumped as there was a sudden loud bang behind him. Turning quickly he stumbled over his own feet, and reached out to the wall to stabilise himself. He looked across the roof to the now open door.

Silhouetted by the light from a distant bulb Seto Kaiba stood in the doorway one hand out to keep the door from slamming shut, the other hand casually placed on his hip. The wind whipped the hair around his face almost obscuring his cold expression. His coat played around his ankles in a mass of movement which contrasted sharply with the stillness of the man himself.

McIntire's heart seemed to freeze in recognition of the man in front of him. This was _the_ Seto Kaiba. One of the richest and most powerful men in the world; the man he had tried to kill.

Seto stepped forward onto the roof, letting go of the door and allowing it to slam shut behind him.

'Owen McIntire.' It was a statement rather than a question. 'We have a number of… issues we need to discuss.'

'K-Kaiba,' Owen gasped through trembling teeth. 'I –'

'Firstly,' Seto cut across him his tone cold and harsh, 'there's the small matter of you trying to kill me,' he stepped forwards towards the cowering man. 'Secondly, you tried to extort money from my company,' McIntire tried to speak but Kaiba stopped him before he even got a sound out. His voice, though calm, was dripping with anger. 'And third, in your pathetic assassination attempt you succeeded in injuring a friend of mine.'

Owen shook his head wildly, his face pale in the darkness. 'It wasn't me – I didn't have anything to do with it. I – I don't even know what you're talking about.'

Seto stopped a few feet from the shaking man and raised his eyebrows coolly. 'Ah, now that's a bit strange. You see I've had a number of conversations with people who would swear that, not only are you involved, but that you are actually the ring leader.'

'They're lying.' McIntire's voice was high pitched in terror. 'They're telling you that to save their own skins.'

Seto gave a calculatedly nonchalant shrug. 'If they were hoping to be saved by that then… they must have been very disappointed.'

'What do you mean? What did you do?'

Seto gave him a long look before twisting his lips into a crooked smile. 'The same thing that I intend to do to you, shortly.'

Seto watched impassively as the man's face drained of colour. He had witnessed the same level of fear in the other men he'd detained. Initially he had been surprised and not a little confused by it. It had been Roland who had explained the uncomfortable truth that the criminal fraternity had a healthy level of respect for the Kaiba name following Gozaburo's ruthless dealings with those who crossed him in the past. His father's treatment of his enemies often included unimaginable torture and the involvement of their family. It was a legacy of terror that had lasted well beyond the old man's death.

Whilst disgusted by the discovery, Seto had to admit that the reputation certainly served his purposes; both of Owen's associates had almost instantly confessed to their involvement in the bombing of his New York offices and had thrown themselves on his mercy. They had whimpered and pleaded and had spilled forth information as if their very lives depended on it.

Naturally Seto had no intention of breaking anyone's legs or slicing off the top of their fingers or any of the other disturbing things that he discovered were his adoptive father's trademark. In fact, when he told Owen that he was going to treat him in the same manner that he had dealt with the others, he only meant that he would turn him over to the Metropolitan Police to let the courts deal with him. However, Seto felt that it was in his best interests for McIntire to remain unaware of this fact for the time being.

Owen cowered on the floor, his back pushed hard up against the low grey wall of the roof top. His hands clawed anxiously at the ground beneath him, the coarse bitumen drawing blood from his knuckles. Kaiba stood above him, his coat flaring about him, the light from the nearby buildings lighting up the rain around him with an eerie orange glow. His face was shadowy, his eyes hidden in blackness, only a faint light revealing the sneering lips. To Owen he seemed like the angel of death come to get him personally.

There was a sudden noise somewhere behind Kaiba and the towering man briefly turned, his intense gaze shifting off Owen for a brief moment. That was all that Owen needed, without those dark eyes on him he felt like his body had been granted movement again and he took advantage of it. Almost instantly he was on his feet and running. He barged past Kaiba who leapt back in surprise. He had thought of trying to get to the door but he saw that it was blocked by two men. Wildly he changed direction heading for the furthest point on the expanse of roof terrace. His mind was suddenly clear and focused. He seemed to see and hear everything in infinite clarity. The blurry reflections in the puddles on the ground, the dark, twisted shapes of ventilation shafts, the squelching sound of his thudding footsteps. Ahead of him he saw the edge of the building and beyond it, coming into view below the low wall, was another building, not attached but not that far away either. McIntire's mind began calculating even as his pace increased. He actually found himself laughing as he leapt up onto the low wall and then, with all his might, sprang forward, into the open void, towards the distant roof.

It wasn't like a cartoon. There was no moment of stillness or furious peddling of legs before the inevitable decent. Owen desperately reached out, his arms stretching to cross the gap. His fingertips brushed the brickwork of the other building but didn't connect.

He fell with a piercing scream.

Murdoch was the first to reach the point where McIntire had jumped and he was quickly joined by Roland. The two of them stood staring down in horror, not quite comprehending what they had just seen.

A moment later Seto was beside them. The young CEO also looked over the edge and the three men stood for a moment in silence.

Finally Seto straightened up. 'Shit' he said.


	3. Phone Calls

A/N: Sorry it's taken a while to update this story - I've been suffering from the old problems of too much work to do with a healthy dose of writer's block chucked in for good measure. The ideas are all there, it's just the words, sentences and paragraphs that are causing problems! I hope you feel it was worth the wait.

OooooO

'He jumped?!'

'Yes.'

'So did he make it?'

'No.'

'Oh… is he…'

'He's still alive, just. He was lucky in that he bounced off a refuse bin in the alleyway, plus the buildings in London aren't like New York, they don't tend to be all that high.'

'Shit!'

'Mokuba!'

'Sorry. So what did the police say?'

'They haven't said anything yet. Our team were the first ones to get to him so they transferred him to a hospital. Roland suggested initiating protocol for the situation and I let him get on with it.'

'We have a protocol for this?'

'Our father did apparently.'

'Huh, figures. So did you find out if he was the mastermind behind the bomb plot?'

'Well, if you could call him a 'mastermind'. It was just him and the other two that we already handed over to the police. Owen somehow got hold of the schematics for the building and the other two built and planted the bomb. They detonated it without really caring if it killed me or anyone else but knowing that the publicity and kudos they would get from having pulled off something so audacious would give them leverage to extort money from Kaiba Corp and other companies under the threat of being able to do it again. Personally I can't believe they almost succeeded in assassinating me. Frankly it's an insult.'

Mokuba laughed.

'Anyway, enough about me – what's going on there? Anything major to report?'

'No, nothing that I couldn't handle. The purchase of that small manufacturing firm went through without a hitch, other than that…'

'No messages then?'

'That stuck-up doctor lady, Felicity Wilkins, left a message. It was quite long but the gist of it is that you're a jerk for not having bothered to cancel your appointment with her and she's going to send you a bill you for her wasted time.'

Seto smiled slightly – there were few things he found more entertaining than annoying his psychiatrist. It did his mental health far more good than any session with her ever could.

'So… no other messages then?'

'No.'

There was silence for a few moments as Mokuba mentally dared himself to ask his brother who he was expecting to get a call from. It had been the same all week, every time he called Seto had asked about messages and had never seemed satisfied with the reams of business calls that had come in for him. Mokuba suspected he knew who his brother was hoping to hear from but was unsure how to bring up the subject, and unsure about how Seto would react.

Before he got the words out however, Seto changed the subject.

'I'm due back in at JFK at about seven tonight, your time. How do you fancy picking up a DVD and a pizza and having a lazy night in? I think I deserve a bit of a break after a week in soulless hotel rooms.'

Mokuba hesitated. An evening like Seto had described was incredibly rare and usually Mokuba would instantly cancel any plans to spend such quality time with his brother. But tonight…

'Umm, I can't, I'm really sorry big bro' it's just, well, it's Yugi and the gang's last night in New York before they head back to Domino. I promised that I'd go to a club with them. I mean I suppose I could go for a bit and then – or maybe we could change their flight or something or-'

Seto smiled at Mokuba's awkward attempts to find a solution. It meant a lot to him that his brother was still so eager to spend time with him even though Mokuba had plenty of his own friends and was constantly being invited on nights out and to parties.

'Stop, stop,' Seto interrupted as Mokuba was in the middle of suggesting they commission the private jet to take them back to Domino, 'it doesn't matter. We can do it another night. I'll probably crash out early anyway with the jet-lag.'

'Are – are you sure?' Mokuba sounded relieved.

'Of course!' there was an almost imperceptible pause. 'So… who's going?'

OooooO

There was a rattle of metal against metal as a key turned in a lock. A moment later the sound came again from a different part of the door. After the third and final lock was unlatched the door finally swung open and a woman strode purposefully into the apartment; heading immediately for an expensive looking security device on the nearest wall which was beeping rhythmically in an ever increasing pitch. She typed in a long series of numbers and hit the enter button which shut off the grating noise and then she turned.

Illuminated by the light from the doorway, Mai's expression was harsh, the glow highlighting a deep furrow in her brow as she moved back to the entrance to pick up a bag of groceries. She kicked the door shut and walked across the dark apartment seeing her way by the streetlights that cast a dull orange glow through her windows.

She dumped the bag on top of a pile of unopened bills which littered a small kitchen worktop and rummaged around inside until she found a tin of spaghetti hoops. Opening the tin she sloppily decanted the contents into a plastic cereal bowl before sliding it into a microwave and spinning the dial to set it to three minutes. Only then did she allow her hand to go to her jacket pocket where she kept her cell phone.

Gripping it in one hand she took a deep breath before turning it around so that she could see the screen by the light of the microwave. Clicking the unlock buttons brought the screen to life and the blank image reflected in her eyes.

No messages. No texts. No missed calls.

Her breath came out in a long sigh and she leant back against the counter to watch her dinner turning in bubbling circles. She contemplated buttering some bread to go with the hoops but decided she couldn't be bothered

After the incident in the lift Mai had practically floated home. She had woken the following morning and had spent a long time in her bed gazing sightlessly at the ceiling and grinning to herself. Eventually she had left her bed and had drifted around her apartment, wallowing in the rare feeling of being in a really, _really_ good mood. Okay, so her arm had still been a bit painful and, calling work, she'd gotten an earful from her boss for having missed her shift the previous night, but even so, she couldn't stop grinning.

She had watched the news reports on the event and had enjoyed the fluttering feeling in her stomach as 'young CEO, Seto Kaiba' came on the screen. She had also succumbed to temptation and bought a number of newspapers that covered the incident and had spent more time than strictly necessary studying the photographs of Seto. She was relieved to discover that he had kept her name out of it even though the omission had led to the disbelief of her boss.

Over the following few days she had checked her phone a number of times to see if Seto had called but, though slightly disappointed by the blank screen, she had shrugged it off reasoning that he must be swamped with work following all the drama. _Once_ _it all settles down he'll find me_, she told herself, recalling with a smile his last words before their parting kiss.

As the week wore on Mai gradually began to succumb to the doubts. The walls of her tiny apartment reverberated with her thoughts and worries. The whole thing had been a cruel trick by Seto who was clearly just playing with her. Something had happened to him, the bombers had found a way to hurt him or kidnap him or somehow prevent him from contacting her. He was out of the country dealing with some terrible disaster or maybe, maybe he simply couldn't find her. Her excuses for him were many and varied but didn't do anything to alleviate the intense feeling of disappointment she experienced every time she checked her phone. A feeling that, more and more was turning to irritation at her own behaviour.

'For God's sake, snap out of it!' She had firmly told her own reflection one night after having committed the heinous crime of actually checking that her own phone was working. 'I am not some stupid love sick schoolchild!'

The microwave pinged, breaking into her thoughts. She put the phone back in her pocket and opened the microwave door, stepping back quickly as a wave of steam hit her. She knew from experience that trying to lift the bowl now would most likely burn her fingers, the stain on the floor was a testament to a similar experience, so she left the bowl in the microwave and walked to the windows, tugging sharply on the curtains to close them. Only when all the curtains were closed and the apartment was swathed in darkness did Mai turn on the light.

One bare bulb illuminated nearly the whole apartment, only a small bedroom and an even smaller bathroom remained hidden behind drapes of material that acted as doors in the bizarre aftermath of the previous tenant having taken everything – including things that were screwed down. The curtains were mismatched and the furniture was a bizarre mix of styles that hinted at necessity and cost being the prime purchasing incentives of their owner. The most expensive thing visible in the room was the security alarm.

Happy that there were no gaps in the drapes, Mai headed back into the kitchenette and gingerly picked up the bowl of spaghetti and grabbed a nearby fork before walking towards what looked like a bricked in fireplace that jutted into the middle of the living space. There was a low level sideboard pushed hard up against the wall. Only very close inspection would have revealed that its squat, ugly legs didn't actually touch the floor.

Mai reached around the corner and placed her hand firmly on the wall and pulling so that the whole corner of the 'fireplace' began to move, taking the sideboard with it. It slid round in a gentle curve revealing, behind it, a mass of books, files, two expensive-looking computers and, on a tiny shelf hidden behind each of the base units, two plain looking tins sealed with five digit combination locks.

Placing her dinner on top of a metal filing cabinet Mai crouched down, lithely twisting herself into the small space beside the small wooden chair underneath the desk. She reached out for one of the tins but suddenly jumped in alarm as she heard a noise right beside her. She banged her head on the tabletop as she turned in panic only then realising that the sound was being accompanied by a vibration and that both were emanating from her jacket pocket. Hastily grappling with her jacket Mai yanked at the phone. It came free from the material in a sudden movement so that Mai's overeager fingers lost their grip and the phone skittered away from her across the floor. Swearing liberally Mai crawled after it, once more aware of the fact that her heart was beating far more excitedly than it should.

She grabbed the phone with an outstretched hand, pressed the connect button with her thumb and brought it to her ear.

'Hey Mai, I bet you weren't expecting to hear from me!'

Recognising the voice Mai forcibly suppressed the sigh she felt rising in her chest and instead plastered a smile on her face in the hope that it would disguise the sound of disappointment in her own words.

'Serenity! Wow, umm it sure is a surprise. How are you hon?'

As her friend began to chatter excitedly about what she had been up to during her stay in New York, Mai slowly twisted herself around so that her back was against the wall, her legs pulled up close to her body, her free arm resting limply across her knees. Casting a brief glance upwards she saw the spaghetti hoops and her false smile wavered slightly as she contemplated her swiftly cooling evening meal. What the hell had happened to her life that she was living in this scum hole, jumping at the phone in the hope that a man (a _man!)_ was going to call her and her main meal of the day was going to be cold spaghetti hoops?

Something in the pitch of Serenity's voice alerted Mai to the fact she had been asked a question and she berated herself for not having paid attention.

'I know it's really late notice and everything,' Serenity said after a moment, obviously interpreting Mai's silence as indecision, 'I'm really sorry but I leant my phone to Joey and he lost it, like he does, and he only found it today – it was in the pocket of his jeans the idiot! So anyway, that's why I didn't call sooner but it's our last night and I would be really sad if I didn't get to say goodbye to you… so?'

Mai had no idea what she was being invited to and was about to make some lame excuse when her eyes once more strayed to the bowl of spaghetti hoops.

'Three questions, hon – where, when and do they serve food?'


	4. Waiting and Watching

A/N: This chapter was finally finished thanks to me having a sick day (or rather a day when my husband wandered off with my car keys and I decided that my mild stomach-ache was clearly intensified ten-fold by my lack of transport!). Glad to have got this scene at least half done though and hopefully the second half should follow on soonish (although I haven't quite worked out what happens yet so don't hold your breath!). Thanks to those of you who continue to wait patiently and take the time to review.

* * *

Waiting and Watching

Mai inched forward in the queue trying not to shiver in the cold night air. She hadn't brought a jacket with her as the club was only a short walk from her apartment and she hadn't considered the possibility of having to wait in line. Mai didn't usually bother with queuing, instead relying on a mixture of looks and unwarranted confidence to blag her way into anywhere she wanted to be. This night however, with a group of people that included the young looking Serenity and Yugi, it was decided that it was best not to draw attention to themselves.

Serenity shifted her weight anxiously from foot to foot becoming more nervous the closer they got to the front of the line. Yugi was fiddling with his pyramid necklace, waiting for a surreptitious moment at which he could switch to the taller and older looking pharaoh.

'I'm so glad you could come tonight Mai,' Serenity said sweetly.

Mai just nodded her head giving her a small smile. It was at least the tenth time the girl had said this and Mai was running out of polite ways to acknowledge the comment.

They inched forward again.

A commotion broke out behind them as a tall, dark-haired man pushed his way through the line. He was carrying a huge hot dog; dripping with mustard and ketchup, and a chicken burger which he duly handed to Mai.

'Oh man, that looks so _good_!' Joey gasped looking at Tristan's hot dog and salivating openly. He positioned himself to stand right in front of his tall friend and actually let out a small dog-like whimper.

'Get out of it Joey! You said you ate before you came out!' Tristan growled pulling the food away from Joey's face.

'Aw, but that was just a snack!' he whined.

'A three course snack!' Tea chastised. 'And you finished my dessert!'

Mai smiled to herself, taking a large bite of her burger and realising at the same time just how hungry she was. It was dry and a bit tasteless but she allowed herself a tiny sigh of happiness anyway as she felt the warm food hit her empty stomach.

The line shifted forward.

Beside her there was a flash of golden light and she suddenly found herself standing next to the pharaoh. Her eyebrows furrowed imperceptibly at the sight. Although Yugi was her friend she still found that his use of a millennium item made her slightly uncomfortable following her experience with the millennium rod.

As she took her final bite of the burger she forced herself to relax. Using the ancient artefact in order to look old enough to get into a nightclub probably wasn't something she should really get worried about, she decided with a small smile.

'How many?' the gruff voice of the bouncer interrupted her musing.

'Six,' the pharaoh said in his deep and serious voice which seemed entirely out of context in this setting.

'ID?' the bouncer demanded looking straight at Serenity.

Mai stepped forward, surreptitiously wiping the last crumbs of her hastily eaten burger on the back of her tiny skirt.

'Hon,' she purred blasting him her most winning smile, 'you don't need to see her ID.'

'No?'

'No… she's with me,' Mai moved so that she was standing right in front of the bouncer and flicked he hair subtly pushing forward her chest as she did so.

The bouncer's gaze wondered down to her cleavage and back up to her suggestive expression. There was a long pause.

'And we're all here to see Mr Kaiba,' Tea chipped in, suddenly appearing at Mai's shoulder and breaking the man's concentration.

'Oh, right,' the bouncer said, blinking and clearing his throat nervously, 'yes, well, in that case you'd better go on in.'

He cast another glance at Mai who had already backed up a bit and who was now staring at Tea in surprise.

'K-Kaiba?' she stuttered, stunned.

But Tea had already turned to head into the club.

Mai paused for a second and then hurried after her friend.

The bouncer stared after her wistfully. _Definitely a perk of the job_, he thought to himself with a small sigh.

He suddenly snapped back to reality, as he saw Tristan who was still chomping his way through the giant hot dog, leaving a small trail of mustard and ketchup for every bite he took. The bouncer stepped into his path, barring his way.

'Hold up,' he demanded, his gruff voice returning to its full strength, 'you can't take food in there.'

'Why, you're absolutely right,' Joey intervened, nodding emphatically, 'Lemme fix that for ya.'

With a deft movement Joey grabbed Tristan's hot dog and shoved the whole thing into his mouth in one go. He grinned a ketchup grin and ducked under the bouncer's arm as an astonished Tristan stood gaping at his now empty hand.

'Hey!' he called angrily after Joey, he too manoeuvring around the bouncer and running after his friend.

Finally came the pharaoh who gave the bouncer a small bow. 'Thank you for allowing us passage,' he said formally.

'Yeah right,' the bouncer said watching, dazed as they all disappeared into the club, 'whatever.'

OooooO

Mai quickly caught up to Tea, her mind buzzing with the name her friend had uttered. She wanted to ask her if she'd heard right, if she had really said 'Kaiba' or if it had simply been Mai's mind playing tricks on her. She scowled to herself; she was at it again, thinking about him when she should be thinking about herself and having fun. She decided to forget the question and push Seto far to the back of her mind.

Instead she stopped and took a good look around her. As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom of the club she found, to her surprise, that she was impressed. Since Yugi and his friends didn't live in New York she had suspected that they would be ending up in some touristy dive, with naff music and full of the type of creeps that she came across everyday. Looking around though, Mai noticed the funky neon lighting, the spacious dance floor and the generally 'cool' vibe that pervaded the large room.

'Hey, Tea,' Mai shouted above the thumping base, 'where'd you guys hear about this place?'.

'Oh, Mokuba told us about it. It's one of his favourite places apparently.'

'Mokuba?'

'Yeah I know, I still think of him as a cute little kid too,' she laughed.

That hadn't been what Mai was thinking but she let it go.

'So is he here?' Mai asked the question, convincing herself as she did so, that it was only Mokuba that she was asking after.

'I hope so; he was saying something about some sort of VIP area that he uses here, which sounds nice.'

Mai nodded, not sure whether she felt disappointed or grateful that the Kaiba previously referred to obviously wasn't the one that she'd been hopelessly pining over for the past week.

'Hey, there he is!' Tea's eyes were locked on something over Mai's left shoulder. She turned to see Mokuba waving frantically from a mezzanine level.

Serenity was already running up the stairs towards Mokuba and the rest, Joey and Tristan still squabbling, followed on.

The seating area itself was sleek and sophisticated with low level cushion seats and tables set with small, candle-lit lanterns which threw tiny splinters of coloured light across the cosy space. A continuous curving glass banister separated them from the dance floor. It meant that they could watch everyone below them and absorb the atmosphere whilst, at the same time, the barrier cut down much of the music noise so talking was relatively easy.

Mai held back as the others all greeted Mokuba; Serenity launching into the same excited round up of events that she had given Mai over the phone. Once or twice she caught Mokuba looking at her in a slightly strange way as if he wanted to ask her something important although, when it finally came to Mai's turn to greet him, all he asked was how her arm was doing.

'It's fine thanks hon,' she said, absent-mindedly stroking the strip of black material that she had wound around her arm to cover the large plaster.

There was a slightly awkward pause as Mai and Mokuba looked at each other.

Serenity was suddenly between them practically bouncing up and down in excitement.

'Oh, I love this song!' she squealed happily, 'come and dance Mai – please!?'

She tugged on Mai's bad arm making her wince and quickly grab hold of Serenity's hand. She turned to face her, at the same time picking up on the song that was playing.

'Ah, hon, I don't think this is my kind of music to be honest,' she said apologetically noting the tinny beat of a recent pop song. Seeing Serenity's expression sadden she quickly added, 'If the music gets a bit … harder, I promise I'll dance later – okay? In the mean time, I bet Tea will go dance with you,' she nodded her head towards Tea who was tapping her foot and swaying in time to the music as she looked across the dance floor.

Serenity nodded and started to move towards Tea, as an afterthought she turned to Mai once more. 'Later – promise?'

Mai smiled 'Promise,' she turned back to Mokuba, 'the music gets better, right?'

He grinned and nodded before his expression returned to being thoughtful and slightly anxious. 'Look, Mai, I just wanted to say –' he began but was cut off mid sentence by Tristan.

'Hey, is that _Kaiba_?!'

Mokuba and Mai both turned immediately to where Tristan was pointing down towards the entrance of the club. Sure enough there was Seto, large as life, looking coldly around him as the crowds of people milled about him on either side.

Mai felt her heart lurch painfully at the sight of him. He stood, his long legs together, standing straight and still like a pillar. He was wearing his usual outfit of black with a dark purple overcoat that reached down to his booted feet. His arms were folded across his chest and he wore the expression of someone not entirely at ease with his surroundings but trying to fake it.

A movement nearby brought Mai to her senses and she turned to see Yugi, back to his normal self, make his way down the stairs to greet the CEO. Looking back around she caught sight of Mokuba looking at her again, this time with a small smile on his lips.

'Did you know - ?' she asked him, trailing off lamely.

Mokuba shook his head and shrugged to show that he was as surprised as her. They both turned back to watch as Yugi bounded up to Seto, beaming happily in what was clearly a friendly welcome.

On the mezzanine level the onlookers all saw Seto's eyes narrow at Yugi's approach just as his scowl deepened. They couldn't hear what Yugi was saying but could see by the enthusiastic gestures and nodding head that Yugi was talking excitedly. Seto didn't crack a smile, if anything his posture became even more guarded and hostile. At one point he turned his head slightly and flicked a glance at the exit, clearly calculating how quickly he could get away. And then Yugi must have said something which caught Seto's attention as his expression suddenly changed. He raised his head slightly and the scowl all but vanished. He raised and enquiring eyebrow and, for what appeared to be the first time during the conversation, he asked Yugi a question.

In response Yugi half turned and, with a sweeping gesture, he pointed up towards where Joey, Tristan, Mokuba and Mai were standing, goggle-eyed, watching the whole exchange with undisguised amazement.

Seto's eyes alighted on each of them in turn, the slightest of twitches in his right eye indicating his displeasure at seeing Joey and Tristan, a faint smile appearing when he saw Mokuba and when he saw Mai…

The gaze lingered long enough for Mai's spine to tingle. It lingered so long in fact that the others, Yugi included, all found themselves following his gaze, unsure of what they were all supposed to be looking at, other than the rare event of seeing Mai blush.

And then the look was gone, Seto was back listening to Yugi who was now indicating towards the staircase.

Mai took a sudden breath, only now aware that, for a short while at least, she had been holding it in. She looked around and saw the looks of confusion on the faces of her two friends whilst Mokuba was now grinning openly at her. She looked round at the staircase where she could see Yugi and Seto beginning to climb. She felt herself growing hot and flustered as a thousand thoughts ran through her head at once.

Looking down at the floor she gritted her teeth and made herself think rationally. _This guy's left me hanging all week and now – now he thinks he can just turn up here and click his fingers? I don't think so!_ She fixed her expression to one of calm self assurance and looked up just as Seto reached the top of the stairs.

'Excuse me,' she said smoothly, 'I promised Serenity I would join her on the dance floor.'

She gave a polite smile to the group and lithely manoeuvred herself around Seto. As she sauntered down the stairs she took a deep breath and allowed herself a quick grin as she recalled Seto's look of surprise and confusion. Yep, after the terrible week she'd had she decided that it was time she regained the upper hand. She strode out onto the dance floor determined that Seto Kaiba would regret ever keeping her hanging.


	5. Dancing Around the Issue

Dancing Around the Issue

Mai took care to keep her pace slow but deliberate. Linking into the music she timed each footstep to fall in line with the beat. She consciously accentuated each stride with a sensuous swing of her hips. Her head was up, her arms swung gracefully but casually by her side and her shoulders were back. As a result her entrance onto the dance floor was one that looked the epitome of cool confidence. No one looking at her would have imagined just how self conscious she felt or the fact that she was itching to turn around and see if Seto was still watching her.

She angled herself to glide effortlessly through the crowds to where Serenity and Tea were dancing and she tensed herself to start to move to the music herself. She still felt the buzz of exhilaration that she'd gained from brushing past a bewildered Seto but the down side she realised was that she would actually have to dance to music that she neither recognised nor liked.

As Serenity squealed in delight at her arrival, Mai had to hope that her old-school moves would still work for this modern dance stuff.

OooooO

Seto watched Mai's departure and frowned. The encounter hadn't gone quite as he had planned and he wasn't quite sure why. It's not like he'd expected much in the first place – it had only been on the off chance that he'd come here at all tonight. A hint, dropped by Mokuba, that Mai would be attending the evening's gathering had been enough for him to make the unprecedented decision to head to the club. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd told himself that it had been a bad idea.

Standing in front of his wardrobe contemplating what clothes to wear had been the first instance. Getting to the club through New York's heavy traffic had also been a pain, even if he was comfortably accommodated in the back of a plush Kaiba Corp limo. The jostling onlookers from the long line outside the club had been off-putting even though he had swiftly bypassed the lot of them by stating his name to a dazed looking bouncer. Being greeted by an enthusiastic Yugi had very nearly been the last straw but then, in amongst the high pitched waffle that had been spewing forth from his pint-sized rival, he had heard her name and, moments later, he had looked up to see her gawping down at him as if she couldn't quite understand what she was seeing.

At the sight of her Seto experienced a peculiar feeling of elation that seemed to begin in the pit of his stomach. He was slightly alarmed at a sudden desire to smile and probably would have given her a pathetically goofy grin had he not held himself in check.

Her expression had been difficult to read but there had definitely been something in that long gaze they held – or so he had thought.

He turned away from the dance floor and blinked in surprise as he was met by the curious expressions of Tristan and Joey who were staring at him.

'And what are you dweebs looking at?' he growled.

'Seto!' Mokuba quickly stepped forward to greet his brother.

In the past greetings like this had always involved a full on hug, now, at the age of seventeen, Mokuba was beginning to feel self conscious about such acts of affection, at least in public. Seto understood the reasons but it was still with a slight sense of disappointment that he gripped hold of Mokuba's hand and embraced his little brother in the 'manly' half-hug that Mokuba now adopted.

'How's it going big brother? I didn't expect to see you here tonight!'

'Yeah, well, I thought I would stop by and see where you like hanging out,' he glanced around him as if to give credence to the statement and, in so doing, caught sight of Tristan and Joey who were now grinning and exchanging knowing glances.

Seto fixed them with a cold look, his eyes narrowing to slits.

Yugi pushed himself forward, surreptitiously giving Joey a dig in the ribs with his elbow as he did so.

'Do you want a drink, Kaiba?' he asked politely, ignoring Joey's hurt look.

Seto looked down at Yugi and tried to work his expression into a gracious smile. 'Yes. Whisky… please,' he managed in a voice that sounded only slightly strained.

As Yugi trotted off to the nearby bar a heavy silence descended upon the group.

Mokuba sighed inwardly. For all that he loved his brother immensely, he had to admit that Seto's social skills were somewhat lacking on occasion. Not always of course, after all, Seto had hosted numerous business and charity events and had mingled with everyone from heads of state to famous actors, royalty to business rivals. No one could ever exactly call him 'friendly' but he certainly seemed to pull off being charming and witty when he chose to. It just seemed that he never chose to with Yugi and his friends.

'Seto's just come back from England, haven't you Seto?' Mokuba said suddenly, trying to diffuse the air of barely concealed animosity that was emanating from Seto like a thick fog.

'Yes,' Seto said blankly.

Joey stopped rubbing his side and grinned at Seto with genuine interest in his eyes. Mokuba felt a moment of hope as Joey took that bait. With any luck a sensible conversation would now ensue and he wouldn't have to feel the weight of the awkward silence on his shoulders.

'Cool – did ya see the Queen?' Joey asked.

Mokuba did a mental head slap and looked at his brother, pleading with him to let the comment pass without a rebuttal.

'Yes,' Seto said, his tone measured, his expression unreadable, 'I went to see the Queen as she's a huge fan of Duel Monsters. We drank afternoon tea and played cricket on the lawn whilst wearing bowler hats and talking about the weather.'

Joey's eyes widened, 'Really?!'

Tristan smacked Joey on the back of the head. 'Shut up Joey – he's just foolin' with you.' He looked at Seto with a raised eyebrow. 'Aren't you?'

Seto blinked only the slightest movement at the side of his mouth giving away the fact that he was laughing at them both.

Mokuba scowled and tried to get the conversation back on track.

'Seto was chasing down the people who were responsible for the bomb last week,' he stated, a hint of pride evident in his voice.

'Cool,' Tristan said, casually fending off Joey's attempts to get him back for the head slap, 'so did you catch 'em?'

Seto flicked a quick glance at Mokuba and then looked levelly at Tristan.

'We caught two,' he said coolly, 'the other we let drop.'

Mokuba, who had just taken a sip of his drink, made a strange noise and clasped a hand to his mouth as he started choking.

'Jeez, are you okay Mokuba?' Joey asked moving quickly to his friend and slapping him hard on the back despite Mokuba trying to shoo him away with a flailing arm.

Tristan gave Seto a quick look and was surprised to find the hard features softened by a small smile which disappeared again as soon as he realised he was being watched. The two men looked at each other for a moment.

'So,' Tristan began with an expression which, had Mokuba seen, would have had the young man creating another distraction in a desperate attempt to save the situation, 'what's with the look you were giving Mai?'

Joey and Mokuba both turned to look at Seto. Mokuba, his face red and his eyes swimming with tears looked like he desperately wanted to say something but he couldn't get any words out.

Seto stiffened. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

Joey, distractedly giving Mokuba one last strong slap on the back which nearly caused the young man to topple forwards onto the floor, gave a shrewd grin.

'Of _course_ you don't,' he said, sarcastically.

'More importantly,' Tristan continued, enjoying the feeling of having the upper hand, 'what's with the cold shoulder she gave you?'

'You'd better not have done anything to upset her,' Joey said, his voice suddenly serious.

'Why?' Seto asked, looking at him with one eyebrow raised, 'are you going to defend her honour, Wheeler?'

Joey suddenly laughed. 'No,' he said with a grin, 'I just wouldn't want to be the one to upset her – she's got a pretty fierce temper on her!' He shook his head as if remembering an event from the past and made a pained expression.

Seto wasn't quite sure what to say. He'd started the conversation on pretty safe territory, mocking Joey and Tristan was so easy and so familiar-feeling that he had almost enjoyed himself. As soon as her name had come up though it was as if his mind had turned to gloopy custard, his usual sharp wit had completely dried in his throat.

'Here's your drink, Kaiba.'

Seto nearly jumped at the sound of the voice at his shoulder. He looked down to see that Yugi had returned and was holding up a glass of whisky.

Seto grabbed at it, a little more quickly than strictly necessary. He brought the glass to his lips and drank down the liquid in one smooth motion. He banged it down on the table and then, without meeting the surprised expressions of the people around him, he turned and began to walk away.

'I'm going to the bar,' he called out behind him.

OooooO

Mai was beginning to relax. It turned out that dance music was quite good to dance to and even though she didn't recognise half the songs, the beat was strong and repetitive enough for her to feel confident with what she was doing. She was even starting to enjoy herself.

To the right of her was Tea who was dancing with an incredible elegance, her lithe limbs twisting and moving to the music perfectly. In front of her was Serenity who was moving her feet rhythmically from side to side and swaying her arms around happily. Her lips moved along with the words of every song and, each time a track changed, she would give a little squeal of delight and clap her hands excitedly.

Mai herself kept her feet firmly planted in place making all her movements centre around her hips, gyrating them seductively in time with the beat. Her shoulders mirrored the movement so that she twisted and turned smoothly with a cat-like grace.

In the busy club the trio of girls had not gone unnoticed and Mai had already surreptitiously clocked a number of men who had been eyeing one or other of them up. For most, a quick glare had been enough to warn them off trying anything but she was becoming increasingly aware of two men whose furtive glances had turned gradually to lecherous stares as they had consumed one drink after another in quick succession.

Mai frowned as the pair, egging each other on, made their way onto the dance floor, clumsily stumbling into other dancers as they approached her. One of the men, the shorter of the two, moved towards Tea looking for a way to get near to her even as she twisted and turned; her eyes glazed with concentration. His goofy smile turned to a frown as he was constantly prevented from getting close by Tea's sweeping arm movements. Blinking slowly he turned to look at his friend who nodded his head towards Serenity who was looking increasingly uncomfortable.

The larger of the two men had manoeuvred himself around so that he was standing behind Mai. He stood, motionless for a moment, watching the sensuous movement of Mai's body, and then he took a step towards her…

OooooO

Seto made his way back across the VIP area with a drink in hand. He had spent as much time as possible at the bar; deliberately delaying his inevitable need to return to the group. He half expected their annoying interrogation to continue from where it had left off and was surprised therefore when his return went completely unnoticed.

Mokuba, Yugi, Joey and Tristan were all standing at the balcony overlooking the dance floor. No one was saying anything.

Seto made his way to stand beside his brother.

'What are we looking at?'

Mokuba jumped slightly at Seto's sudden appearance but quickly recovered. He pointed down at the mass of people dancing below them.

'Over there, Mai, she has an… admirer.'

Seto followed the direction of Mokuba's hand and his eyes narrowed as he spotted a burly man dancing up close behind Mai, clumsily trying to match his hip gyrations to hers.

Mai carried on dancing just as she had before, seemingly oblivious to the smirking man behind her. _Either she doesn't know or_, Seto thought darkly, _she doesn't mind_. His scowl deepened.

And then one of Mai's dance moves led to her turning slightly and the expression on her face told them all that she was not impressed. She gave the man a stern look and appeared to say something but he just leered at her and moved even closer reaching out a hand to put on her left hip.

'Why, that –'

Seto turned away and made a move towards the staircase. He was stopped in his tracks by a firm hand placed on his shoulder.

'Don't do it rich boy,' Joey warned even as he quickly took his hand off Seto's coat in response to the glare he had received.

'What, you're just going to let – '

'Trust me, Mai can look after herself and she certainly wouldn't thank you for trying to interfere.'

'He's right man,' Tristan intervened as Seto made another glace towards the stairs, 'and trust me, he should know.'

'Don't forget,' Joey added turning back to watch the girls, 'that's my little sis' down there with some jerk tryin' it on. Now I could go down there and pummel him into next week, and maybe I should, but I trust Mai to handle it.'

Seto frowned but stayed where he was. He felt an awkward twist in his stomach as he saw the man place his other hand on Mai's right hip so that he was now stood directly behind her with only inches separating them. Seto felt sick watching it, his stomach clenched with a mixture of anger and… something else that Seto didn't recognise as an emotion he had experienced before.

On the dance floor Serenity became more aware of the short man dancing closer and closer behind her. She gave Mai a desperate look, feeling out of her depth and not knowing what to do. Mai responded by giving her a quick wink.

With a sudden movement Mai dropped down slightly, driving her elbow back heavily into the tall man's groin. She did a 180° turn twisting herself away from his grip and stepping backwards out of his reach. She took another step back so that she was now slightly behind Serenity and standing next to the shorter man who gawped at her in surprise. Mai's open palm connected with the man's shoulder spinning him around just in time for her knee to hit home.

Everything she had done up to now had been perfectly in time to the music, she hadn't missed a single beat, but now she stopped and watched impassively as both men crumpled to the floor in seeming agony, clutching at their genitals defensively, although it was clear that the protection was coming altogether too late.

She said something to Serenity who nodded emphatically even as she stared in wonder at the men writhing at their feet. Mai tapped Tea on the shoulder to bring her back to reality – the girl was so wrapped up in the music she hadn't even noticed the commotion around her and now blinked in surprise at Mai's handy work.

The three of them moved off the dance floor heading back to the VIP area where five men were watching and wincing.


	6. With Friends Like These

Téa and Mai made their way through the crowds towards the stairs that led to the VIP area. Téa glanced behind her nervously, half expecting someone to be coming after them. Serenity, clearly fearing much the same, had already run on ahead. However, other than a few wary looks and an imperceptible edging away from Mai as she passed, everyone in the club seemed content to behave as if nothing had happened. Certainly, looking at Mai, there was nothing in her expression to give away the fact that she had just floored two men in a move that would probably affect their ability to walk properly for the next few days.

As if sensing Téa's gaze upon her, Mai turned her head slightly to look at her friend. She didn't smile but Téa could see by the glint in her eyes and the way she held her head high, that she was feeling good about what had just happened. It was the same expression that she recognised from watching her friends duel over the years; it was an expression of power and of victory.

Thinking of her friends Téa turned her attention back to their destination.

'Oh my God!' she gasped, stopping in her tracks and unconsciously reaching out a hand to grasp Mai's arm. 'Kaiba's here!'

Mai, who had been trying her hardest not to look towards the balcony, found herself instinctively following Téa's gaze. As she had feared and hoped, Seto was staring down at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Mai quickly turned away with a slight frown. She glanced at Téa, subtly moving her arm out of her friend's reach as she did so.

'Yeah,' she shouted over the thumping music, 'he turned up a while back.'

She and turned her focus back to the stairs just a short way ahead of them, trying not to think about who was waiting at the top, and certainly not looking his way again.

'But wait,' Mai tensed as Téa's insistent voice, and even more insistent grasp, brought her back to a halt. 'You knew he was here? Why didn't you say?'

Mai tried her best to smile innocently (in her repertoire of bluffs she knew this one was one of her least convincing). 'I don't know,' she shrugged nonchalantly, succeeding in once again dislodging Téa's hand, 'it just didn't seem important,' she turned away before adding, archly, '… or interesting.'

Mai began walking again, hoping that Seto was no longer watching or in any way making the assumption that he was being talked about.

Téa caught up quickly. 'What,' she scoffed disbelievingly, 'Seto Kaiba, _the_ Seto Kaiba turning up at a night club?!' Téa shook her head in wonder, 'seems pretty interesting to me.'

'Huh,' Mai mumbled quietly to herself, 'you just have a low excitement threshold.' She had reached the bottom of the stairs now and was annoyed to find that, once again, Téa had come to a halt. 'Are you coming?' she snapped impatiently.

Téa was looking perplexed. She raised one eyebrow at Mai. 'You don't seem pleased to see him?' she observed.

'Why would I be?' Mai turned now, giving up on the hope of making a smooth return to the VIP area, and instead fixing her attention fully onto her friend.

'Well, I thought the two of you got on quite well during the whole lift thing?'

Mai's eyes narrowed slightly. 'What do you mean?' she asked; a dangerous edge to her voice.

'Well, just that… you…you didn't end up killing each other or anything' Téa hastily tried to explain, feeling suddenly uncomfortable under the steady gaze of her friend.

Seeing the innocence in Téa's eyes Mai relented a little. Her mind quickly recalled the time trapped in the lift with Seto and, though her arm tingled slightly at the memory the injury she had sustained there, she also found herself wanting to smile at the memory of what had transpired between herself and the seemingly cold hearted CEO.

'I guess it was okay,' she finally conceded with a small smile. 'I wouldn't want to repeat it,' she quickly added, eager not to seem too nostalgic about an event that, to others at least, would appear to have been terrifying and traumatic in equal measures.

Téa, thinking exactly that, gave her friend a confused look. 'No, I wouldn't suppose you would…'

The two girls stood for a moment looking at each other. Téa was slowly coming to the conclusion that something wasn't quite right and that the intriguing behaviour of her usually unflappable friend was masking something more… interesting.

Mai was desperately hoping that Téa would simply drop the subject so they could both stop having a shouted conversation on a subject which she was feeling irritatingly uncomfortable about.

The seconds seemed to stretch between them and Mai had just started to turn to walk away when Téa asked another question.

'Why do you think he's here?'

Mai felt her patience snap. 'Well, I don't know do I?' she hissed, rounding on Téa aggressively, 'it's not like he called ahead to run through his evening plans with me or anything. It's not like he called me at all in fact…'

Her words seemed to hang in the air for a moment and Mai, realising her mistake, watched in horror as Téa's expression changed, in seeming slow motion, from surprise at her friend's anger, to confusion and then… excited realisation.

'Oh!' Téa gasped, clasping her hand to her mouth.

Mai widened her eyes in terror, her usually cool exterior shattered in the face of her friend's sudden understanding. She sought a quick escape and turned again to ascend the stairs, only to find Téa's hand, as tenacious as ever, grip hold of her arm and pull her, commandingly to a halt. She turned slowly to face her grinning friend.

'Something happened didn't it?!' Téa blurted out excitedly. 'In the lift? You and Kaiba?!'

To Mai's panicked senses it seemed as if the music, the sounds of laughing, the shouted conversations, the commentary of the DJ, all of it, had just been muted, whilst, at the same moment, Téa's voice had been turned up full blast. Mai quickly closed the distance between them, alarmed by Téa's words and half convinced that the whole world had heard them.

'I swear to God Téa,' she growled savagely, ripping her arm away from Téa's grasp and putting a shaking hand to her friend's mouth, 'if you say one more word I'll – '

Far from cowering under the force of Mai's anger Téa actually giggled delightedly and clapped her hands together in glee. 'It did! It did!' she laughed, casually swiping away Mia's hand. 'Oh my God that's so great! So what happened? Who made the first move? Did you kiss? You didn't do more did you? Was he any good? Did he -'

Mai blinked at Téa in horror; clearly her usual scare tactics weren't about to work. Watching her friend's happy face as she shouted out one question after another, Mai's mind speedily weighed up her options. In her panic she briefly considered punching Téa full in the face; her theory being that at least it would shut her up. Conceding that it was an action likely to lead to even more questions however, she quickly dismissed the idea. With a sinking feeling she realised that she would have to resort to something that she usually considered to be the last option.

She threw herself on her friend's mercy.

'Please Téa – stop!' she pleaded desperately, reaching out to grasp Téa's hands within her own. She looked plaintively into Téa's eyes and bit her lip. A small part of her was infuriated at the sudden feeling of helplessness but it was swept aside for an absolute, all consuming need for Téa to stop talking so loudly, stop grinning like that and definitely to stop looking over Mai's shoulder to where she assumed Seto was standing – _if he knew…_ she thought, grimacing at the very idea.

'Look,' she eventually said, so quietly that Téa had to move in closer to hear, 'something… happened but it didn't mean anything and Se – Kaiba's obviously forgotten all about it and I'm not about to remind him.'

Téa's grin faded to be replaced by a look of renewed confusion. 'What do you mean he's forgotten?'

'Well,' Mai started, feeling a flush of shame as she thought of what she was going to say, 'he said he'd call and …he didn't.'

There, it was out, she had said it. Seto Kaiba had turned up his nose at her. The memory sent a renewed surge of emotions through her: anger, embarrassment, disappointment. She lowered her head unhappily.

'So?'

Mai looked up at Téa in surprise. 'What do you mean, 'so'?'

Téa smiled again, a look of something akin to pity showing in her eyes. 'What I mean is he's a man!' she laughed. 'Men are terrible at phoning when they should.'

_Maybe in your experience _Mai thought unkindly, noting the hint of condescension in her friend's voice and feeling incredibly irritated by it.

'And why do you think he's here tonight?' Téa went on, her voice taking on a sing-song quality, like a primary school teacher trying to explain something simple.

'You've already asked me that,' Mai observed coldly dropping Téa's hands and folding her arms in front of herself.

'Well it's obvious,' Téa laughed, 'he's here for you!'

Mai frowned slightly as she gave the surprising idea some thought.

'… You think?'

'Well duh!' Téa giggled pulling a face at Mai and slapping her playfully on the shoulder.

Mai scowled dangerously.

'Come on,' Téa grabbed hold of Mai's arm once more and started to lead her up the stairs, 'let's go talk to him.'

Mai wrapped a firm hand around Téa's wrist and held her in place. She looked straight at Téa and gave her friend the sternest look she could muster.

'I swear Téa, if you breathe a word of this – ' she began forcefully.

'Yeah, yeah,' Téa laughed dismissively, patting Mai's hand gently before tugging her up the stairs again, 'oh this is so exciting!' she grinned.

Mai followed on behind, determined, when she next got the opportunity, to work on her scary looks in the mirror. They clearly needed some fine tuning.

* * *

A/N – okay, this was _definitely_ going to be the chapter where Mai and Seto spoke to one another. I figured, six chapters into a Seto/Mai fic, that at least some sort of interaction should occur. They are mere steps away from each other now though and both want to say something to the other and it _will_ happen next chapter, I promise! Don't expect it to go smoothly though, these two are definitely a fiery match! 

Thanks for being patient with me and thanks for the reviews I've had so far. More are always welcome!

P.S. In deference to 5animefan and anyone else who is wondering, I _do_ like Joey, Tea and the others and think they are strong characters in their own right, however, I'm kind of using and abusing them a bit in pursuit of the overall story. I hope I'm never _totally_ off character with any of them, although I'll hold my hands up to not painting in fully rounded character portraits on each of them. Sorry if I have offended anyone's sensibilities!


	7. The Conversation

The Conversation

In the VIP area at the top of the stairs, the group were unhappily acting out the dictionary definition of 'awkward'. Yugi had gamely tried to keep conversation going with a story of their visit to the Statue of Liberty the previous day. However, as most of the group had been present on the trip, and Mokuba had already heard the story from Serenity earlier in the evening, Seto was the only one for whom the conversation stood any hope of being entertaining. His stony faced demeanour however hinted at the fact that he wasn't playing the game.

'- And then we went on this tour and we actually saw the original torch that the statue used to carry.' Yugi ploughed on bravely.

'Really?' asked Mokuba politely, cringing slightly as his brother rolled his eyes.

'Téa!' Joey shouted enthusiastically, and with a hint of desperation in his voice, as his friend reached the top of the stairs, 'there you are! Why don't you come and join us? So, what have you been up to?'

Téa smiled widely at the group dragging an unusually subdued Mai up to stand next to her, right in front of Seto.

'_I_ haven't been up to anything, Joey. How about you?' her voice was strained with subdued glee and her eyes seemed to be working overtime, flitting between Mai, Seto and her friends in an exaggerated manner.

'Umm, I've not been up to much,' Joey stuttered, confused by his friend's peculiar behaviour. 'Just, you know, talking to Kaiba here.'

'Oh yes, _Kaiba_!' Téa grinned at the CEO who seemed fairly taken aback by her sudden intense interest. 'How _lovely_ to see you! Now, tell me… what have _you_ been up to recently?'

Seto narrowed his eyes suspiciously and ventured a quick glance at Mai who herself was looking at Téa in a very peculiar way. When she noticed Seto's gaze on her she quickly composed herself and met his stare with little more than a raised eyebrow and the slightest cold smile pulling at the side of her mouth.

He mirrored her expression, suddenly wary of seeming too pleased to see her in front of the others. He did allow his smile to convey a little more warmth than hers however, although that didn't say much. For a moment or two they stood like that, looking at each other, neither saying a word. Both lost in their own thoughts, it took a moment or two for each of them to realise that all other conversation had ceased, to be replaced with some frantic movements that intruded on their peripheral vision.

Cutting his eyes to the left, Seto saw Téa making some wild hand gestures which were quickly converted into a casual brushing down of her top when she noticed Seto watching her.

Mai, looking the opposite way, saw Joey, on the receiving end of Téa's gesticulations, pointing incredulously at Seto and then at herself. He froze as he realised that she had caught him. Mai raised her eyebrows at him and gave him a long glare which he at least had the decency to looked cowed by.

Despite her icy appearance, Mai felt her heart beating rapidly and became aware that her hands felt clammy. _Probably just a result of dancing_, she told herself, steadfastly ignoring the other explanation that flitted, unbidden through her mind. She felt the sudden need to get a bit of space, gather her thoughts and regain her usually composed demeanour.

'I'm going to the bar,' she started decisively, tapering off somewhat lamely as her sentence was finished by Seto who had chosen that exact moment to say make the same firm statement.

Seto looked at her with a sudden frown, wondering if she had somehow managed to do that on purpose just to make him look stupid.

Mai also scowled, feeling more and more anxious by the minute, painfully aware that all her 'friends' were now staring openly at the two of them, grinning their heads off. _They're just loving this,_ she thought bitterly, coming to the conclusion that this was all somehow Seto's fault.

She took a quick breath and stared straight at Seto.

'I'm going to the bar,' she said again, slowly and clearly as if daring him to pull the same trick twice. 'I'll get in a round for anyone who hasn't _already_ got a drink.'

She looked pointedly at Seto who suddenly realised he was still holding a nearly full glass of whisky. He looked at the glass in horror feeling an unfamiliar feeling of mortification run through his veins. He contemplated just how stupid he must look right now and gripped the tumbler in a white knuckled grip as he let his frustration wash over him.

He wondered at his own emotions, wondered why he was feeling this flustered. The only time he ever remembered feeling like this was when he was duelling Yugi. In fact there was such a familiar sense that he was somehow being out manoeuvred in a battle of wits that, in his mind, he could almost hear the electronic beep that accompanied the loss of life points during a duel.

He finally looked up from his glass to see that Mai, having quickly taken some drinks orders, was already on her way to the bar. He looked at the people around him who were all, his traitorous brother among them, looking at him expectantly.

Seto grimaced slightly as he made the decision on his next move. Raising his glass to his lips he drank down his second whisky in one gulp, slammed it on the table and stalked off after Mai.

OooooO

_Okay, this is fine_, Seto thought to himself as he made his way to the bar area, _all I need to do is start talking to her like before_.

He recalled their easy conversations, the companionable openness that they had both reached when in the lift. Ignoring the fact that they had kissed, it had been the conversations that he had often recalled with a fond smile over the past week. Talking to Mai had been easy, and pleasant, and fun and not at all like any other conversations he generally had week on week.

Okay, so tonight she had been a bit… hostile so far but that was surely because, like him, she didn't want the rest of the geek squad sticking their noses in where they weren't wanted.

As he neared her he became aware of a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He quickly dismissed it as a result of the second whisky.

Mai had seated herself on a tall bar stool and was leaning over the counter trying to see into the back room where the only barman was chatting to his friend, studiously unaware of the fact that he had a customer waiting.

'Hi.'

Mai jumped slightly at the sound of the voice right next to her. She turned to find herself staring straight into Seto's eyes.

'How are you?' he asked. 'How's your arm?' he consciously made his tone pleasant and polite. After a moment he even added a smile for effect.

'Oh,' Mai felt her mouth beginning to form a smile of its own and stopped herself just in time. She gave him a level look, 'just peachy thanks,' she stated with just a hint of sarcasm. _Keep it cool_, she told herself, _just because I'm pleased to see him, doesn't mean he should know it_.

'I half expected to find you filing a law suit,' Seto said conversationally, 'for damages incurred as a result of aggressive actions taken against an employee of Kaiba Corp.'

Mai looked at him blankly and Seto found his smile faltering slightly.

'Or, at the very least against the use of such hard floors in the Kaiba Corp. lifts,' this time Seto gave her his most winning grin.

Mai raised an eyebrow but still said nothing.

'Of course,' Seto went on, when the weight of the silence seemed to have hung in the air for a painfully long time, 'the Kaiba Corp lawyers would have crushed any case you tried to make against us. We have whole teams dedicated to undermining possible allegations. They would have had the case thrown out quicker than you could say 'compensation' and probably would have ruined you in the process,' he laughed and then frowned slightly.

_What the Hell am I talking about?_ He asked himself sternly. _I'm babbling. When the Hell did I ever babble?_ The sound of an electronic counter sounded in his head as he envisaged a few more life points disappearing.

Seto's perplexed mind flashed back to their time in the lift together. This time, instead of the laughing and chatting, he recalled the long painful silences; the frosty atmosphere of barely concealed mutual contempt; the fact that she had called him a jerk numerous times. For some reason he had forgotten that. Until now.

Mai stared at him for a moment and then turned away to look again for the barman. With her face safely hidden she allowed herself a small smile at his expense. She was starting to get the feeling that she could have some fun with this.

'I thought I could give you a hand with the drinks,' Seto started again, determined to get the conversation back on track.

Mai forced her features back into a semblance of indifference before turning back to Seto. 'What,' she asked innocently, 'paying for them?'

'Oh, uh, I was more talking about helping you carry them…,' Seto stuttered, suddenly feeling flustered, 'but yes, I could –,' he began searching his coat for his wallet which, under normal circumstances, he would be able to take out without even thinking about it, but which now, under Mai's stare, seemed to have hidden itself away in an inaccessible inner pocket that required his full concentration to locate.

As Mai watched him fumbling about in his coat she bit her lip to stop from grinning. When he finally resorted to taking off his coat to search each pocket methodically, swearing lightly as he did so, she had to physically cover her mouth with her hand so that she wouldn't laugh aloud. She took a deep breath and removed her hand, turning away slightly so that he wouldn't see any residual laughter in her eyes.

'Don't worry about it,' she said waving a hand dismissively and looking in the opposite direction for the work-shy barman, 'it's my round anyway.'

Seto, who had just managed to successfully wrestle his wallet free from an inside pocket, was left staring at the back of her head. He looked at the wallet and then back at Mai and frowned. _Great_, he thought to himself, _now I can add clumsiness and fumbling stupidity to this evening's newly acquired skills list_. The imaginary life point's counter dropped a few more hundred points as he angrily thrust his wallet into the back pocket of his trousers and placed his coat over a nearby stool. He felt thoroughly frustrated and irritable.

Mai, who had just about managed to coax the grin from her face, turned back to Seto. She opened her mouth to say something but the words dried in her mouth as she looked at him.

Even in her surprise earlier in the evening she had been forced to admit to herself, however grudgingly, that he looked pretty good in his coat. Without it though, she was able to fully admire his tall, lean figure, shown off to great effect by his tight dark trousers. He was wearing a black, close fitting shirt that was slightly open at the collar, revealing his long, pale neck and just a tantalising amount of chest.

He was looking away from her slightly, fastidiously arranging his coat over the stool. Despite the fact that his hair was falling over his eyes, she could tell that he was frowning, his thin lips set in a slight grimace.

He straightened up and faced her, his eyes registered surprise and then suspicion as he saw her watching him.

'What?' he asked rather brusquely, clearly anticipating more humiliation.

Mai opened her mouth again, furiously willing her brain into action.

'What happened to your drink?' she finally managed, looking down at his now empty hands.

'I drank it,' he stated, rather coldly.

'Huh,' she looked at him with an expression of admiration; she hadn't ever taken him for much of a drinker. 'Best get you another then.'

Mai had turned away again and so missed the look of distaste that crossed Seto's face at the thought of yet another whisky. Mai was right in her supposition; he wasn't much of a drinker under normal circumstances. _This evening_, he thought, looking around the dimly lit club and catching sight of Yugi and the others, _definitely doesn't come under 'normal circumstances'_. He sighed inwardly as he watched the group all quickly look away, artlessly trying to pretend that they hadn't been watching. _Maybe one more whisky won't be enough_, he thought, dryly.

'I'm not having much luck here,' Mai suddenly said, irritably leaning over the bar and waving to try and catch the barman's eye to no avail. She turned to Seto and gave him the first warm smile she'd given him all evening. 'If you're any good at getting people's attention I could do with some help,' she said. 'I've been trying to call this guy over for the last few minutes but he's ignoring me,' she laughed slightly as if the scenario were preposterous. 'A girl could die of thirst!' she gave Seto another smile and then motioned her hand slightly in a subtle invitation for him to take a seat on the nearest stool.

He raised a cautious eyebrow before taking a seat. He had no idea what this woman was thinking. One moment she was staring at him, the next, ignoring him, then she was being icy cold and now she was inviting him to sit with her.

He wasn't sure how Mai was able to make him feel so completely out of control of the situation, but she was doing a damn good job of it. If it wasn't for the deep seated need to regain some dignity, not to mention a few of those life points that seemed to be steadily sliding away with each passing moment, he was pretty sure he would have given up and gone home a long time before now. Something in the back of his mind quietly hinted that there might another reason for his willingness to persevere with Mai, but he steadfastly ignored the thought.

Mai, aware that her invitation had lightened the mood slightly, was deciding how to handle the next conversation that arose. Too harsh and he was likely to walk, she decided, too soft and… she paused briefly as she watched him snap his fingers and instantly catch the barman's eye. Too soft and… what? They could become friends? They could kiss again? They could start a relationship? Her heart started beating faster at the thought of it and she had to physically shake her head to clear her mind and refocus. _Too soft and I could spend another week moping about staring at the phone. Too soft and I could fall for him and let myself become weak. Too soft and I leave myself open to all sorts of emotions that I don't want to be feeling right now, _she reminded herself firmly.

The barman finally arrived and politely took her order. She watched him as he moved around behind the bar, fixing the drinks, lost briefly in her own thoughts.

'Mai…' Seto's voice was also thoughtful, 'the others – Joey and Tristan, they seemed to think I had done something to upset you?'

She looked into his eyes. This was it, she thought, the possible acknowledgement of her miserable week. She was interested to hear what he had to say on the matter, keen to hear an apology.

'Really?' she asked innocently. 'What did you say to that?'

'Well, nothing,' he shrugged.

Mai looked at him, once again letting the silence hang heavily on his shoulders.

'You did seem a bit… tetchy though,' he said, smiling.

_Tetchy?_ Mai blinked and felt a surge of anger rising in her chest.

'That'll be –' the smiling barman started only to find a fifty dollar bill slammed down on the counter in front of him.

'Keep the change,' Mai said sweetly even though her voice appeared slightly strained.

'Well, maybe 'tetchy' isn't the right word,' Seto mused; seemingly unaware of the danger he was putting himself in, 'certainly a bit… moody though.'

_Moody?!_ She clenched her fists into a tight ball and worked on keeping her face impassive.

'It was almost like you were trying to avoid me,' Seto laughed innocently.

Mai shifted around on the stool so that she was directly facing Seto. _Okay_, she thought to herself, _the gloves are off. _A small part of her was aware that nothing Seto had said so far had, technically been untrue, but who the Hell did he think he was to actually say it?!She narrowed her eyes dangerously._ There's no such thing as 'too harsh'_, she decided.

'Firstly,' she said softly, her eyes boring into Seto's, her tone icy cold, 'I was neither 'touchy' nor 'moody' in any way.'

Seto opened his mouth to speak by was quickly silenced by her glare.

'If, to your eyes, I appeared to be either,' she continued, infusing each word with venomous scorn, 'then I suggest that it is your perception that is skewed. After all, just because I didn't dance a merry jig at your arrival, it doesn't mean I'm 'moody', more that I'm simply under-whelmed by your presence, and I'm sorry if that is such a shock to your huge ego that you have to interpret it as being a character flaw on my part.'

Seto winced under the force of her sarcasm. The electronic counter was whirring away furiously in his head.

'And another thing –,' Mai's voice was growing in strength and Seto saw, from the corner of his eye, the barman backing away quickly, 'I was _not_ avoiding you. I just wanted to dance. I mean, that _is_ allowed isn't it?'

She stared at him for a long moment and he suddenly realised that she was waiting for an answer.

'Yes,' he managed, a furrow appearing on his forehead.

'It's not against some sort of 'Kaiba – rule' that I don't know about?'

Again she gave him the long stare.

'No,' he said after a moment, wondering vaguely why his brain seemed to have given up on any pretence on being able to cope with this situation.

'Well then!' Mai gave him a final glare before turning away haughtily.

Seto stared at the back of her head and frowned in consternation. He couldn't remember the last time he felt like this. Probably not since he had left school – primary school at that. He was beginning to seriously question his own sanity for wanting to spend any time with this woman who seemed to be able to habitually humiliate and frustrate him in equal measures.

_I'm Seto Kaiba!_ He reminded himself. _People simply do not talk to me like that! I'm respected and important and… and I don't have to put up with it! _

He considered saying all of this to Mai, but he could picture all too well how she would simply laugh in his face. He scowled at the thought but then, thinking how ridiculous such a statement would sound, even to his own ears, he let his shoulders slump slightly and gave a slight sigh. If this had been a duel, he reflected, his life points would now be in the red_. I need the conversational equivalent of one of Yugi's deux ex machina cards that he always pulls out of the hat at the last minute, _he thought. But with his ears ringing from Mai's words and his brain feeling numb from exhaustion, he couldn't think of anything clever or witty to say.

'Mai,' he started, his tone of voice so flat and defeated sounding that Mai turned slightly to look at him, 'I flew in three hours ago and I've had very little sleep. I've got meetings all day tomorrow that'll probably take me non-stop right through until late evening. It's two in the morning London time, I've spent most of the day on a plane and seventeen hours ago I watched a man throw himself off a building,' he paused and looked around him.

'Now I'm at a night club of all places,' he continued with a bemused frown, 'with Yugi Mutou and his moronic friends. I've downed two large glasses of whisky in fairly quick succession, which, I have to say, doesn't feel too good on an empty stomach, but the worst thing is that I'm aware that I've done something to upset the one person that I came here for,' he paused, looking earnestly at Mai who was regarding him with a puzzled expression on her face. 'And maybe I'm too tired, or too drunk, or just too plain stupid, but I don't know what I've done or how to fix it.'

There was a long pause.

'There it is,' he added standing up. He turned away and picked up his coat, smoothing out the creases in the fabric with one hand.

Mai watched him, trying to organise her dazed thoughts as she did so. She hadn't, for one moment, considered the possibility that she could fall for Seto whether she was nice to him or not. She realised that, if she didn't say the right thing now, he would simply leave and that would be the end of it.

'You saw a man throw himself off a building?' she said eventually, her tone and expression unreadable.

Seto paused midway through putting his coat on and looked at her. 'Yes,' he replied, and shucked the coat onto his shoulders.

'He wasn't trying to avoid you by any chance?'

Seto looked sharply at Mai who was regarding him with a face of pure innocence. Only a sparkle in her eyes and the tiniest twitch pulling at the side of her mouth gave her away.

Seto scowled slightly. 'He was as it happens.'

Mai allowed herself to break into a huge grin. 'I love stories of your life,' she stated happily.

Seto shook his head in bemused wonderment. 'Do you ever let up?!' he asked irritably, even as he felt the tension of the last few minutes being washed away by her sudden good humour.

Mai started laughing.

'It's not funny!' he snapped even as he too began to smile.

Mai's smile faded slightly. 'He didn't die did he?' she asked, suddenly concerned.

'No.'

'Well then,' she stated with a renewed grin. She took hold of three of the drinks from the bar, leaving her own martini and Seto's whisky where they were. 'Look,' she said genially, 'I'm going to take these drinks over and then… I'll come back and you can tell me the whole story, okay?'

Seto held her gaze for a moment, feeling her sudden warmth wash over him. It was a nice feeling.

'Okay,' he said.

* * *

A/N: Phew! That one wore me out a bit! Still, I think I got off lighter that Seto did (and he still doesn't know what he did wrong - heh heh!). 

I really felt the pressure of trying to hit the right ballance with this and I'm a bit concerned that Seto may come across as uncharacteristically weak (I don't think he knew what hit him really!). The ballence tips more in his favour later - promise!

Thanks must go to Avidreaderalso who helped me hold Mai back a bit and helped me to get a fresh perspective on this challenging chapter.

I hope you think it was worth the wait.


	8. The Long Arm of the Law

The Long Arm of the Law

Seto smiled as he watched her walking away, her long legs striding smoothly across the floor and her hair bouncing slightly with every stride. For a moment his thoughts were lost in the wistful contemplation of her movement, then, remembering the conversation they had just had, he found himself suddenly frowning.

That had to rank as one of the most uncomfortable conversations of his entire life, he decided. _I don't know what I've done or how to fix it_? He thought incredulously. What sort of thing was that for him to say? It was like an apology, only he never apologised, ever. _Except_, his mind briefly flashed up an image of an upset looking Mai from a week previously, _yes, well, except then_.

'How the Hell does she keep doing that to me?!' he said quietly to himself.

Suddenly he became aware of a faint sound that contrasted with the music of the club. Recognising it as his ring tone, he quickly reached into his coat, tutting to himself irritably when he was able to instantly locate the phone in amongst the folds of the material. He flipped it open with an easy movement and held it to his ear.

'Yes?'

'Mr Kaiba,' Roland's slightly flustered voice sounded distant.

'Roland.'

Roland began saying something but Seto cut him off. 'Roland, you'll have to speak up, I'm in a night club.'

'A where, sir?' Roland's voice was stronger but his tone was confused.

'A night club,' Seto repeated steadily.

There was a pause. 'Did you say – '

'Roland,' Seto snapped irritably, 'did you call to discuss my choice of leisure activity or do you have something to say?'

Roland quickly recovered himself. 'Sorry sir,' he said, his voice returning to it's usual business-like manner. 'I'm at the hospital with McIntire, and the police. They want to ask you some questions, sir.'

Seto sighed slightly. 'What happened to 'initiating protocol'?' he asked sardonically.

'Well, we did try but it became a bit difficult when McIntire woke up and started screaming for his lawyer,' Roland explained apologetically. 'According to Jackson the protocol for such situations usually worked a lot better when the victim actually died.'

'Yes, I can see how that might work,' Seto conceded with a cold smile.

'Still, you'll be glad to hear that the press have been kept well out of it.'

'Good.'

'But I have an Inspector here who is threatening to change that if he doesn't get an interview with you now.'

'Now?' Seto raised an eyebrow.

'Yes sir, he's very insistent that he talk to you immediately.'

'Insistent huh?' Seto narrowed his eyes slightly. 'Is he there?'

'In next room, sir. I took the liberty of giving him the office number and let him call that whilst I called you on your cell.'

'Thanks for the heads up. Get him and put him on.'

'Yes sir.'

Seto sat himself on the barstool and steeled himself for the conversation to follow. After a few moments a man with a strong London accent came on the line.

'Mr Kaiba?'

'Yes.'

'Mr Seto Kaiba?'

'Yes.'

'You're speaking to Inspector Adams of the Metropolitan police force. I'd like to ask you some questions regarding a Mr Owen McIntire who is currently in intensive care at St Bartholomew's Hospital with relatively minor injuries,' he said officiously before adding, darkly, 'considering what you did to him.'

There was a long pause.

'Mr Kaiba?'

'I'm listening.'

'We have witnesses who tell us that you were on the scene when McIntire fell from the rooftop, as well as witnesses who tell us that you were seen 'chasing' the man through the bar housed in the building below.'

Again there was a pause.

'Mr Kaiba,' the man's voice sounded annoyed, 'this is a very serious allegation.'

'I'm sorry,' Seto said calmly, 'what exactly _is_ the allegation?'

'That you were in some way responsible for the nearly fatal incident that led to McIntire's hospitalisation and that you then absconded from the country with the idea that you could in some way avoid the due processes of the law.'

'Right.'

'Mr Kaiba,' the man growled dangerously, 'I know that you're some big-shot business man and you probably think you can buy yourself out of trouble, but I'm here to tell you that it won't work. Your father may have been able to sidestep the rules in the past but that's all changed. You can no longer assume any sort of diplomatic immunity – '

'Inspector,' Seto cut across the tirade, his voice cold and hard, 'let me assure you that I neither assume diplomatic immunity nor do I seek it. Furthermore,' he continued as the Inspector began to speak again, 'if your force has had dealings with my _adoptive_ father in the past then that reflects very badly upon you but has absolutely no bearing on the way that _I_ deal with things.'

Seto shifted his weight on the stool slightly as he got into his stride. 'The fact that you are prepared to accuse me of such a crime over the phone simply tells me that you have no solid evidence against me; otherwise I am sure the NYPD would be conducting the interview in person. And, if you really believed, for one moment, that I would be prepared to have this conversation in a public place, over an unsecured line and without my lawyer…' he paused and let the idea hang in the air for a moment, 'then you're a fool.'

'Mr Kaiba!' the man gasped in shock and outrage.

'This is what is going to happen,' Seto continued steadily, 'In twenty-five minutes you will call me on my home-office number which my associate, Roland, will give to you. At that time I will happily tell you everything you need to know about what happened as well as my involvement in it.'

'But Mr Kai-'

'_Should_ you insist on trying to intimidate me over the phone; try to involve the media in any way or make the mistake of comparing me with my adoptive father ever again, then I will ask my legal team to step in and you will find your investigation snarled up in so much red tape you'll be drawing your pension before you get the opportunity to speak to me again.'

There was a long silence.

'Well?'

'Twenty five minutes?' the Inspector sounded like he was talking through clenched teeth.

'Twenty-five minutes,' Seto confirmed.

'Huh,' there was a click and the line went dead.

Seto snapped the phone shut with a satisfied smile. The conversation had been much more along the lines of what he was used to and, following the disaster with Mai, he felt a whole lot better.

Looking over to where Mai was standing, laughing heartily at something Joey was saying, Seto wondered what it was about her that meant he had found it easier to deal with a high ranking official who was accusing him of attempted murder, than to deal with her accusing him of… He frowned suddenly as he realised that he still wasn't actually sure what he'd even done to upset her.

Clearly she'd simply caught him slightly off guard. He thought back to the conversation and winced slightly. _I don't know what I've done or how to fix it - _he recalled his words again with a shudder of mortification. _What the Hell was I thinking?_

He shook his head slightly as he quickly paged his driver, telling him to be outside the doors of the club immediately. Twenty-five minutes should be long enough to get everything in order just so long as the legal team were on the ball and could get someone over ASAP. He would call Peterson from the car, he decided.

Now he just had to say his goodbyes and get the Hell out.

He walked towards the group, his mind already transferring to what Mokuba referred to as his work-mode. There was a definite purpose to his stride and, when he came to a halt next to Tristan, all conversation died instantly as his commanding presence seemed to wash over them.

'Something's come up, I have to go,' he stated coolly.

Mai, startled by his sudden arrival looked at him in surprise but Seto was looking elsewhere.

'Yugi, have a good trip back. Maybe, when the show arena is up and running again, you could come back over? All expenses paid again of course.'

Yugi blinked up at him in surprise. 'Err, that would be great Kaiba,' he smiled, 'thanks.'

Seto turned to Joey, Tristan, Tea and Serenity and opened his mouth as if to say something but in the end he simply nodded his head and gave them the faintest of smiles.

Tristan and Joey gawped at him in surprise at the almost pleasant gesture whilst Tea grinned broadly and jumped up from her seat.

'Bye Kaiba,' she said warmly and moved to give him a kiss on the cheek. The suddenly cold expression that he gave her though convinced her to quickly downgrade the show of friendliness to a slightly awkward handshake.

Seto turned then to Mai who was regarding him with a raised eyebrow.

'Mai,' he started, immediately aware of the feeling of nervousness rising within him once again. He took a quick breath and forced himself to push aside the sensation. 'I'm glad we had an opportunity to talk and I would like it if we could catch up again soon. I'm in a hurry now but if you leave your number with Mokuba I'll call you and arrange a mutually acceptable time.'

Mai scowled but Seto had already looked away again.

'Mokuba,' he turned now to his brother, 'I'll… see you at home.'

Mokuba gave him a questioning look but Seto dismissed it with a quick motion of his hand which told him that now was not the time to discuss matters. He glanced around the group once more and gave another faint smile before turning away.

As he started to make his way down the stairs Seto realised, with surprise, that he was feeling happy. The sensation made no sense at all considering the horrors that the evening had held for him and the fact that he was only now getting away so that he could be interrogated by a massively pissed off Police Inspector. Still, there was no denying the feeling that welled in him from the pit of his stomach. As he passed by the two men who had tangled with Mai earlier in the night, both sitting with their legs apart and cradling cold bottles of beer next to their battered privates, Seto gave in to the overwhelming desire to grin.

The group watched in silence as Seto left. Mai was the first to speak.

'Can you believe that?' she exclaimed, incredulously, shaking her head in wonder.

'I know,' Joey agreed, 'he was almost nice to me!'

'He didn't even say anything to you,' Tristan pointed out laughing.

'I know but there was definitely, you know, the Nod of Respect.'

'Nod of Respect?! Is that like the Sneer of Distain that he usually gives you?'

The pair continued their good natured banter as Mai turned away from them to watch as Seto made his way across the club.

He was nearing the exit when he suddenly stopped and turned. His eyes followed along the balcony, clearly searching for something. As he saw her he smiled.

Mai knew that she should feel annoyed with him; the way that he had just addressed her was, frankly, rubbish. However, as he continued to look up at her, his eyes glinting in the fluctuating light of the club, she found herself returning his smile and even grinning slightly as she felt a pleasant tingle run up and down her spine. She shook her head at him in mock disapproval and he in turn held up his wrist and tapped his watch, giving a quick shrug as if to say that his departure couldn't be helped. He smiled one last time and then turned quickly, his coat flaring around him, and left the club.

Mai watched him leave with a small smile and then shook her head again, laughing quietly to herself as she contemplated the strange events of the evening.

Certainly there weren't many men who could have survived the full scale attack that she'd levelled at Seto and, in many ways, she knew that she had been a bit hard on him. Any residual feelings of guilt had been completely washed away, however, by the way that he had spoken to her in front of the others.

_Arrange a mutually acceptable time?_ She thought scornfully. _What am I, some sort of business associate?!_ Still, all in all, it had been good to see him again. Really good. And, though his words had been ludicrously formal, the meaning was still clear; he wanted to see her again.

The thought made her grin.

'Mai?'

She turned, quickly snapping out of her reverie. Mokuba was standing directly behind her, holding out a phone.

'Seto said something about giving me your number to pass on to him?' he prompted with a smile.

Mai fixed the boy with a thoughtful look. Instead of reaching for the phone she leaned casually back against the railing, flicking her hair over her shoulder with a quick movement of her head.

'Your brother once told me that he'd find me,' she said archly. 'If he thinks I'm going to make things easy for him by simply giving him my number,' she stared intently at Mokuba, her eyes glistening with mischief, 'then he doesn't know me very well.'

* * *

A/N 

Things can't just go smoothly can they?

For those of you thinking that Seto and Mai would get all cosy this chapter… well, err, sorry! Still, the ice has been broken and they both want to see each other again so that's got to be a good sign! Plus, Seto managed to get through a conversation (albeit a short one) with Mai without turning into a blithering idiot – result!

With regards to the 'strong London accent' of the Inspector – can I make it clear that it would not in any way sound like the bizarre accent that the dub version gave to Valon.- an accent that clearly came from the Dick Van Dyke school of Cockney! (Sorry – just a little bug-bear of mine)

Hope you like this chapter and thanks, as always, for reviewing.


	9. Flea

First things first – I'm sorry it's taken so long to update. I can't believe two months have passed since I last posted! It's been the usual problems of too much work and writer's block but with the added (and more enjoyable) delay of going on a skiing holiday. Good fun but not very helpful when you're trying to mentally picture what it would be like in the back room of a New York bar…

Anyway, here we are at the ninth chapter. Kitty Kibitzer (who deserves a mention anyway for giving me a gentle kick up the bum to finish this chapter!) asked if this story was going to be longer than The Lift. To anyone else who is wondering the same thing I can safely say that, yes, it's going to be quite a bit longer. I have all sorts of things planned for both Mai and Seto. I hope that doesn't put anyone off?!

The next chapter is planned out in my head and I've been looking forward to writing it for a while now so, hopefully, that means it'll be up before mid May!

Massive thanks again to A.R.A. who helped me to see the wood from the trees with this chapter and helped me focus my mind on what the chapter needed to do.

Hmm, this little prelude is turning into a chapter of its own! I'll leave you to it… ;)

* * *

Flea

Mai slouched into the back room, heading straight for the table and one of the plain wooden chairs that sat by it. She pulled the chair back roughly, ignoring the harsh scraping sound it made against the wooden floor, and flopped herself down into it, crossing her arms on the table and then resting her head down upon them.

For a few moments she sat motionless, her eyes closed, for all the world appearing as if she had fallen straight to sleep. Then, with a sudden movement she raised her head and yawned expansively, raising her arms to shoulder height and forcing them backwards in a languid stretch. She blinked away the sleepy tears before leaning back into the chair, intertwining her fingers behind her head. She let her eyes wander upwards to look at the clock on the wall. 12.34 am. She sighed, shut her eyes again and let her hands take the weight of her head; let her closed eyelids take the weight of her tired mind.

In the next door room she was dimly aware of the sounds of talking, music, laughter but she was accustomed to blocking them out. In this job getting a few minutes to sit down and not be disturbed was a precious thing. It was also a thing that her boss, Joe, didn't really approve of. They'd had arguments about it in the past, much to Joe's surprise. He wasn't someone that people usually argued with, at least, not more than once. In the three months that Mai had been working at the bar, the arguments had been something he'd had to become accustomed to.

A feeling of something brushing against her legs made Mai jump. She looked down underneath the table to where a grey cat was busily gnawing on the narrow stiletto heel of her boot.

'Hey, Flea,' she said as she gently pushed the cat's head away with her other foot.

The animal glanced at her briefly before going straight back to its diversion of chewing on her boot.

Mai sighed. 'You're a brave little critter getting that close to my feet,' she said conversationally, twitching her foot to dislodge the cat once again.

The cat hissed and swung a paw at her foot latching its claws into the laces and snagging them.

Mai frowned and stood up quickly, sending the cat skittering further back under the table.

'You made me get up now,' she chastised, irritably. 'I was fully intending not to move for a good ten minutes.' She moved across the room to another table where the coats, scarves and other personal belongings of the staff had been discarded in a disorderly heap. 'I ought to get Joe down here and turn you in,' she continued quietly as she scrabbled around in her shoulder bag. 'You know he threatened to have you shot next time he found you in here?' she turned back to look at the cat who was peering up at her with large dark eyes from beneath the table. Mai smiled faintly and held up a half eaten packet of cheesy crisps that she had saved from earlier in the evening. 'Lucky I'm a sucker for you moody, loner types,' she said as she made her way back to the table.

She fished out a small handful of the crisps and dropped them onto the floor, watching happily as the cat began crunching on them loudly.

Feeling more awake Mai glanced around her for something to fill the remaining few minutes of her self proclaimed break. Scanning the front covers of the gossip magazines and tabloid newspapers that her colleagues seemed to like so much, she suddenly sat forward as an article header caught her eye.

'New York's Finest!' the cover read, 'The city's most eligible bachelors (and tips on how to snare them!)'

Mai looked around furtively. Happy that there was no one watching, she quickly dragged the magazine across the table and began flicking through the pages. Spotting a blur of a familiar face she stopped turning and spread the pages open flattening them down with the palm of her hand.

Across two glossy pages were shown a variety of wealthy looking businessmen, all in posed publicity style shots. Next to each was a short list of information including their vital statistics and, in large bold type, the amount they were said to be worth. And there, on the right hand page, was just the man she'd been hoping to see.

Mai grinned as she looked at the image of Seto. He was pictured in front of the large, colourful gates of Kaiba Land wearing a crisp white business suit, standing with his arms folded and a stern expression on his face.

'Look at him!' she smiled, holding the magazine up to show to the cat, 'one of New York's finest!'

'Are you talking to yourself again?'

Mai quickly dropped the magazine back onto the table and casually threw her arm across it to hide it from view. She turned to look at man who had addressed her.

Joseph Corelli stood in the doorway with his thick arms folded across his wide chest. He was a man in his early fifties, heavily built and with hardened, fierce looking features. He was the owner of the bar where Mai worked and, as such, he was more than capable of dealing with any trouble makers; and had done so in the past with a frightening efficiency. He had also cultivated a small niche market in after hours card games and gambling and maintained a casual disregard for any of the legal institutions that frowned upon such practice.

For those who didn't know him, he was an intimidating figure, but, when he smiled, as he did now looking at Mai, wrinkles would crease the skin at the side of his eyes, softening his expression into something almost paternal.

'Joe!' Mai exclaimed with a forced laugh. 'How's it going, hon? Are we ready for the game yet?'

Joe raised an eyebrow at his employee, regarding her with a bemused expression. 'Not yet, probably another fifteen minutes or so. Still, you could busy yourself with some restocking if you're bored.'

'Uh huh, yeah, I'll get right on that,' Mai said sarcastically, languidly stretching out her legs and shoving the cat further beneath the table and out of sight as she did so. She yawned loudly to cover the sound of its indignant hiss.

Joe rolled his eyes and moved towards Mai. There had been much speculation, not to mention resentment, among the staff when Mai had begun work at the bar. To their eyes it had seemed that an attractive, if rather brash, woman had simply waltzed into Joe's office one day and demanded a job when there hadn't been any going. To their surprise and disgruntlement she had not only been given a job behind the bar but she'd also been allowed to play in the after hour poker games; something that was strictly forbidden for any other member of staff to do.

If that hadn't been bad enough she also seemed to have Joe wrapped around her little finger, seemingly choosing her own working hours and getting away with murder in the way that she addressed him. Despite his obvious outward devotion to his wife and two daughters, the rest of the staff at the bar had long since concluded that there must be something going on between their boss and this new, brazen woman.

In fact Joe was very fond of Mai but that was where it ended. He liked talking to her and he even liked the way that she teased him – very few people he knew had the confidence to even try. The mere idea of getting romantically involved with Mai Valentine, however, made Joseph Corelli impulsively clasp at his wedding ring, as if the image of his wife could help to fend off the unsettling thought. Joe was sure there was a man out there for Mai, but he'd long since concluded that they'd have to be made of pretty strong stuff to resist the frequent urges to throttle her.

'You're the only one who can get away with talking to me like that you know,' he said irritably. 'I don't know why I don't just fire you and be done with it.' He sat himself down diagonally across from her and reached forward to pull the magazine from under her arm.

Mai could feel herself starting to blush as he skimmed over the article and was almost glad when she felt the tell tale tug on her boot which told her that the cat was chewing on her heel again.

She was looking down at the cat when she became aware of Joe's eyes on her. She met his gaze, realising that he was waiting for a comeback from his previous comment.

'You'd be lost without me,' she managed although her usual sharpness of tone was lost in her distraction.

'So, come on then, which one have you got your eye on?' Joe said after a moment, indicating the article with a smirk. 'Wait,' he continued just as Mai was about to dismiss the whole thing as mindless trash, 'let me guess…' he looked over the images studiously before suddenly jabbing a finger down onto the page. 'This guy!'

Curiosity getting the better of her, Mai shifted slightly so that she could see past his hand. He was pointing at a picture of a wrinkly, lecherous-looking old man.

'Eew!' Mai exclaimed in horror, 'no way! He must be, what, ninety?'

'One hundred and two actually. It says here that he's had seven wives and that he's always on the look out for number eight.' Joe looked up at her expectantly.

'That's disgusting! Why would you think I'd go for him?'

'He's the richest, and the oldest, and the most likely to die of a heart attack any day now and give up all his worldly goods to the right woman.'

Mai tutted irritably. 'Contrary to popular perception, I'm not a completely ruthless, money-hungry gold digger y'know.'

Joe laughed, a deep chesty laugh that spoke of too many cigarettes and late nights. 'Who were you thinking of then?'

Mai shrugged nonchalantly casting a deliberately casual eye over the pictures as if seeing them for the fist time. 'I don't know,' she said dismissively, 'you know, this guy looks slightly more appealing.'

Joe raised an eyebrow and leant forward to read the text next to the picture that Mai had indicated. 'Huh,' he said after a moment, 'I think you'd have a better chance with old Oswald. It says here that no woman has successfully 'snared' Seto Kaiba although many have tried. They don't have any hints under the 'Wooing to Win' header, they just wish people good luck and ask them to write in if they have any suggestions,' Joe continued reading. 'Oswald on the other hand has been known to marry someone purely on the basis of their bra size,' Joe grinned appreciatively. 'Now there's a man after my own heart.'

Suddenly, Joe's good humour faltered, his expression hardened and a scowl furrowed his brow. He pushed quickly backwards in his chair so that, as he stood up, it was sent clattering to the floor behind him.

'What is that thing doing here?' he thundered pointing an accusing finger down at the floor.

Mai winced slightly and bent over to look under the table where the cat was stood, poised as if ready to attack, its back arched and its ears flat to its head.

'Oh,' she said after a moment, 'will you look at that. I didn't see him there,' she met Joe's furious expression with her own semblance of innocence.

Joe glared at her for a moment and then grabbed the magazine off the table and rolling it deftly into a tight tube before crouching down and swiping wildly at the cat who backed away, hissing savagely.

'I will not have that fleabag in - my – establishment!' he growled, punctuating the last three words with jabbing motions from the magazine.

Mai pushed her chair back and crouched down to join Joe under the table. The cat, seeing an ally, ran towards her and hid behind her legs.

'Aww, old Flea isn't hurting anyone, Joe,' she said scooping the struggling animal up in her arms. She stood up, 'can't you just leave him be?'

As Joe too got his feet Mai blasted him with her most winning smile and, for effect, waved the cat's paw cutely at her scowling boss.

'Look at him,' she said in a cooing voice, as if she were holding a baby rather than a rather feral looking cat, 'he's soooo cute!'

The cat, clearly not understanding the part it had to play in this scene, chose that moment to start up a low growl that emanated from the back of its throat. It twisted itself around in Mai's arms in a sudden frenzy of claws and teeth and Mai was forced to drop it awkwardly onto the floor with a quick cry of pain as its claws left three bright red marks across her arm.

She grimaced as she watched the speedily retreating animal and then looked back up at Joe who was giving her a hard stare.

'Okay, so maybe 'cute' isn't exactly – '

'Get rid of it Mai,' Joe said coldly. 'I mean it. You get rid of it tonight or I will.'

'But Joe,' Mai's voice had taken on an almost plaintive quality, 'what am I supposed to do with him, huh?'

Joe raised his thick fingers to his temple in an attempt to ward off the rising feeling of exasperation at her continued arguing. Why did she always have to be so damn difficult?! He took a deep breath and calmly put the rolled up magazine back on the table before walking towards the door.

'Figure something out, Mai,' he growled dangerously. 'You like him so much, take him home.'

'But it's against the terms of my lease to have animals in my – '

'Give him to someone else then,' Joe snapped, 'a friend or someone.'

'But I don't –' she stopped. The magazine was beginning to slowly unfurl, uncovering a familiar face. She looked back up at Joe who was at the door and looking at her impatiently, waiting for her next excuse. She smiled at him. 'Okay Joe, I'll sort it.'

He opened his mouth to shout at her and then closed it again as her words filtered through to his mind. He looked at her suspiciously. 'Really?' he asked in surprise; arguments with Mai were rarely this easy.

'Of course,' Mai smiled at him contritely, 'I know how strongly you feel about this and you've been more than reasonable. I'll sort it out tonight, boss.'

'Right, well, make sure you do,' he said, nodding curtly before striding away, suddenly feeling an unaccustomed spring in his step.

Mai smiled to herself. She knew that gifting her boss this victory would stand her in good stead for the next time she wanted things her way.

'Let him think he's got one over on me,' she said aloud, glancing over at the cat who was busily grooming itself in the corner, completely oblivious to the drama it had caused. 'All men are the same, Flea. Sometimes it's good to let them think they're in control,' she eased herself back into her chair and smoothed down the picture of Seto. 'Other times, it's good to remind them who's really calling all the shots.'


	10. The Moody, Loner Types

The Moody, Loner Types

Roland strode quickly through the ground floor of the Kaiba Corp. offices. Beside him, the company's CEO, and his long time boss, faltered momentarily in his pace as the news he'd just been given sank in. Recovering quickly, Seto covered the remaining short distance across the foyer. He pressed the button for the lift and waited for it to arrive in stony silence.

Roland, long since used to reading Seto's mood, wisely held his tongue.

The lift doors opened and both men entered. Roland reached forward to press the button for the 86th floor and the lift smoothly began its ascent.

'So, what exactly is the problem?' Seto finally asked.

'Well, sir. It seems that she's not actually registered anywhere in New York. There are no accounts of any tax payments and no listings of her name under any employment or residential records.'

'Hold on, wasn't it just last week that we found three men who were specifically hiding from us?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Three men who could actually have been anywhere in the world for all we knew.'

'Yes, sir.'

'But we can't find Mai Valentine?'

'No, sir.'

Seto frowned.

The lift slowed and then came to a gentle stop. The doors slid open to reveal a wide, open-plan area filled with stylish, chrome and glass desks; most of them covered with work. As Seto made his way through the busy mill of his employees, there was a noticeable dip in the noise level as heads turned and all conversations either dried up completely or suddenly switched to very important sounding, business-related topics.

It had been a conscious decision by Seto to move a small section from each department onto the 86th floor. It had meant moving the other directors to a lower floor and he'd also had to give up the squash court area that Gozoburo had been so fond of in his time as CEO but, so far as Seto was concerned, both of these factors had simply been an added bonus. He was pleased to be rid of anything that reminded him of his adoptive father and he'd gained much amusement hearing the whining of the directors as they complained about the 'reduced views' from one floor down.

The only drawback to the arrangement had become evident immediately after the Kaiba Corp. office bombing, when the elevator that usually carried Seto directly to his private offices had crashed to the bottom of the building, seriously damaging the shaft in the process. Since then, Seto had been forced to use the other lifts, all of which brought him up into the middle of the communal, open-plan office area.

Whilst Seto respected his employees greatly, he didn't particularly enjoy having to see them on quite so regular a basis and, despite what numerous sycophants tried to pretend, the feeling was mutual.

The sooner the lift was fixed, the better it would be for everyone.

Until then Seto, along with the rest of his workforce, had to put up with irritating breaks in conversation that would last the length of time it took for him to cross the space. He and Roland walked in silence until they reached the large glass doors that separated the main area from his private offices. As the heavy door swung shut behind them there was a distinctive sound as a hundred or more employees all breathed a sigh of relief in unison.

'Have you checked the bars?' he asked Roland, picking up from where they'd left off.

The two men strode across the vast space of Seto's reception, passing the tasteful, abstract paintings that hung on the wall and the small seating area that was provided for clients and business associates while they waited for Seto to become free. As they approached a second, large frosted-glass door at the furthest end of the room, a middle aged lady, seated at a modestly-sized desk, raised her head to watch them.

'We're in the process of doing so, sir,' Roland replied. 'But there are over five thousand registered bars in New York City so it's –'

The lady behind the desk gave a discreet cough. 'Mr Kaiba, there's a - '

Seto held up a hand to stop her mid-sentence. 'E-mail any messages, Andrea. I'm busy right now,' he said curtly as he walked past her desk and pushed open the door to his office indicating, with a small nod of his head, for Roland to continue.

Andrea watched the door as it swung slowly closed after her boss. She rolled her eyes briefly and then smiled to herself.

'You're going to regret not getting a warning for this one,' she murmured quietly under her breath as she got back to her work.

OooooO

Seto swung the large door open and entered the comfortingly familiar surroundings of his office. For all the grandeur of the reception area Seto's office was quite understated. Along one wall a bank of dark mahogany panels discreetly concealed a wide-screen plasma television, a raft of the latest gaming technology and, in an area that used to house a small bar, a sink unit and a narrow wardrobe that always held a few changes of clothes for any given situation. To the right of the door was a sleek, black leather sofa and a low coffee table. Directly ahead, placed in front of the huge windows so that the sky reflected off its glossy black surface, was a large desk with a well worn leather chair placed behind it.

'It's a process of elimination, sir,' Roland continued. 'We're checking all bars systematically -,' his voice trailed off as he registered the change in Seto's expression. Following his boss' stare, he blinked in surprise at the sight of an attractive woman who stood leaning against the wall closest to the window. She was dressed in a grey suit with a white shirt and high grey boots. She would have looked professional had the skirt been just that little bit longer and the shirt actually buttoned up enough to disguise the ample cleavage.

She turned to face them and smiled. 'Y'know this is some view, you can see my apartment from here.'

'Mai?!'

Roland looked at his boss in surprise. In all the years he'd known Seto, he had rarely heard him sound so… surprised.

'What are you doing here? How did you get -?'

Mai raised an eyebrow. 'Nice to see you, too.' She walked slowly across the room and perched herself on the edge of the desk, levelling a steady look at Seto.

'I didn't mean –' Seto began before stopping himself and placing the tips of his long fingers to his temple. He closed his eyes for a moment and then took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again Roland thought his expression was reminiscent of the one he would often adopt before heading into a duel. 'Roland…'

Roland recognised his cue to leave. 'Should I go and…' He was about to say 'continue the search', but quickly realised how redundant that now was. He also doubted that his boss would want the woman he had been searching so hard for to actually know how much effort he was putting in. The sentence dried in his throat and he stood for a moment with his mouth hanging open.

Seto frowned, understanding the dilemma Roland was facing and grateful that he had managed to stop himself blurting anything out. 'Yes,' he nodded briskly swinging the door open for him, 'if you could …'

'Right away, sir.'

Roland took one last look at the woman he'd been trying to track ever since he'd got back from England. _At least that's one job I can cross off my to-do list_, he thought with a satisfied smile as he discreetly closed the large door behind him.

'You escaped alive then?'

Roland looked up to where Andrea was busily typing, her eyes fixed on the screen.

'Hmm, no thanks to you. You could have warned us.'

'I tried. It's not my fault he was too busy to hear.'

'He's always too busy, you know that. And _I_ know you're perfectly capable of getting his attention when it suits you.'

Her eyes still fixed on the screen and her fingers still working furiously, Andrea gave the merest hint of a smile. Roland shook his head in mock disapproval before turning to make his way back to the lifts. He was almost at the outer doors when Andrea's voice stopped him in his tracks.

'Did she give him the present yet?'

He turned and looked at her.

'What present?'

The rhythmic tapping of the keyboard paused briefly and Andrea looked up to meet Roland's eyes.

'You might want to consider sticking around to see the fireworks,' she said mischievously.

OooooO

Seto calmly closed the door behind Roland and took another deep breath. So she had turned up unannounced and had caught him off guard – again. That didn't mean that Mai Valentine was going to get the better of him this time. He had already mentally written off the night in the club as being an aberration caused by mental exhaustion. He wasn't planning on having a repeat performance – ever.

Mai was watching him, casually swinging her legs back and forth from where she was sat on the desk.

'So, Mai, it's nice to see you again,' Seto bowed his head formally towards her. She returned the gesture. _So far so good_, he thought to himself. 'You look,' he hesitated for a moment, suddenly realising that he wasn't quite sure how to describe her appearance, 'different,' he finally managed with an awkward smile.

'Thanks,' she grinned and smoothed down her tiny skirt. 'I figured if I was going to be visiting your fancy office I should dress the part.'

Seto resisted the urge to ask just what part she thought she was dressing for. She had clearly intended for her outfit to blend in with the other office workers although Seto was certain that he would have noticed if any of his staff ever looked like this.

'I'll be honest,' he said running a hand through his hair, 'I wasn't expecting to see you here.'

'Yeah, well, you were taking your sweet time finding me. I thought I'd help you out. You can tell your guy that he doesn't need to search all the bars in New York, just the ones this side of Central Park.'

Seto hesitated slightly at the realisation that she had clearly worked out what he and Roland had been discussing when they had come in. It was an arrogant presumption on her part and he briefly toyed with the idea of making up a story that would explain away the conversation but then quickly dismissed the thought. It may have been an arrogant presumption, but, it was right after all.

'You could just give me your phone number you know.'

'Where would be the fun in that?'

She grinned at him and Seto found himself grinning back, drawn in by the warmth and humour of her smile.

'How did you get in here?' He asked, changing the subject.

'I was hanging about in your little reception area when Mokuba stopped by. He let me in. He left a note for you too.'

Mai hopped down from the desk and strode across to Seto to hand him a piece of folded paper. She stood and watched him as he read it.

'Anything interesting?'

'It's an invitation to go to lunch.'

'Your brother invites you to lunch? That's a bit formal isn't it?'

'It's not like that. There's this little deli around the corner by the park that we go to whenever we both got sick of corporate dinners and five star restaurants, which is frequently, and also when we both had the time, which is less so.'

'That sounds nice, so are you going?'

Seto glanced briefly at his watch and felt a familiar twang of guilt. 'I can't,' he said dryly, 'my psychiatrist is due in a little over half an hour.'

'Psychiatrist? Is that the one you were telling me about?'

'That'd be her.'

'I thought you hated seeing her?'

'I do, but needs must. The board of directors have insisted I see someone –' he sneered slightly, 'I think they're worried I'll blow up more buildings unless I get an hour's worth of psycho-analytical profiling each week.'

'But aren't you the CEO?'

'Yes, but I still have keep the directors happy.'

'Seems like a bit of a swindle to me. If I owned a multi-million dollar company I wouldn't put up with that sort of crap. Hell, I wouldn't even get out of bed if I didn't feel like it.'

Seto graced her with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile. 'Do you think that might be why you'll never own a multi-million dollar company?'

She smiled and made her way over to sit herself down in his leather office chair. She wriggled slightly to get comfortable and then stretched her long legs out to rest her feet on the desk in front of her.

'How hard can it be?'

Seto rolled his eyes and, choosing to ignore her teasing, looked again at the note. He was about to fold it and put it back in his pocket when he noticed there was a little more writing concealed behind an extra crease in the paper. Seto slid his long finger beneath the fold and frowned. In large, hastily written letters it read: 'Re Mai: be nice'. The word 'nice' had been written in capital letters and had been underscored a few times.

Seto looked across at Mai who was smiling innocently. He looked back at the note and felt his good mood being quickly replaced by an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

'So, was there anything else you wanted, other than to narrow down my search parameters?' he asked, eyeing her with a sudden wariness.

'Oh, right, I nearly forgot.' She took her legs off the desk and reached down to the floor, disappearing behind the desk. When she re-emerged a moment later she was holding a large brown cardboard box. 'I have a present for you.'

'Oh?' his eyes narrowed further. 'What is it?'

'Well, why don't you open it and find out?'

Much had been written about Seto Kaiba in the past. As well as all the mindless gossip magazines that Mai's colleagues favoured, business journals and newspapers constantly wrote articles analysing 'Kaiba's' business style, trying to figure out just what it was that made him tick. Most people cited his natural genius for technological design coupled with his ruthless ambition as being the defining features of his success. Others pointed to sheer hard work and determination.

Much speculation had been raised about the suspicion and mistrust with which Kaiba apparently viewed anyone but his younger brother. His admirers called it caution, his critics called it paranoia. Seto always thought of it as simply being justified.

It was with a certain amount of suspicion and a great deal of mistrust that Seto now reached out towards the box. He slowly peeled away the tape holding the top closed and cautiously raised a flap.

The box suddenly seemed to come to life. The remaining flaps lifted and, with a noise like a baby being throttled, a grey form leapt from the box. In a flurry of movement it sped away and almost instantly disappeared from view beneath the leather sofa.

The box hit the ground with a dull thud.

Seto stood staring at the spot where the creature had disappeared. His lips were tightly pressed together and the fingers of his left hand were twitching slightly. After a moment he turned to Mai.

'What was that?' he asked, his voice dangerously calm.

Mai's smile faltered slightly. 'It's a kitten.'

'A kitten?'

'Yes, well... I say a kitten – more of a full grown cat really. I think he's still quite young though – given the speed at which he moves.' She paused for a moment and then looked at Seto. 'Maybe he's a teenager.'

'Mai… why have you bought me a kitten?'

'Teenage ca-'

'A cat then. Why the - what made you think I would want a cat?' His tone was irritable, almost disbelieving and Mai began to have difficulty maintaining her normally high levels of confidence under his icy stare.

'I don't know,' she shrugged casually, 'you seemed like the fluffy animal type …' Seto's cold blue eyes bore into her own. 'What? Honestly, he's quite cute when you get to know him. He's just nervous of new places.'

Her warm smile was met with frost and Mai experienced a very rare moment of self-doubt as she contemplated the 'brilliant' idea that had led her to this point.

'Come on, I'll get him …' Getting up from the chair she walked decisively towards the sofa feeling his hard glare following her every move. She lowered herself to her haunches and lifted the corner of the sofa to try and entice the cat out. 'Seriously,' she said, giving Seto another unconvincing smile, 'when you see him you'll see how cute – ' with a small cry she dropped the sofa and fell backwards as the cat raced past her and, with a worrying tearing sound, scurried up the curtains to perch high up on the upper rail.

Mai stood up slowly and dusted herself down somewhat self-consciously. 'Ah,' she said with a small grimace, 'I was afraid he'd do that. He spent the whole of last night perched on my curtain rail at home.'

She steadfastly avoided meeting Seto's eye which was fortunate for him as he was suddenly finding it difficult not to laugh.

'I guess he likes heights or something. I couldn't coax him down for anything. In the end I had to get this broom and – '

'What's his name?' Seto interrupted, running a hand over his mouth to try and physically wipe away the remnants of his smile.

'Oh, um, Flea.'

'Flee? As in – runs away a lot?'

Mai looked at him strangely for a moment before allowing herself a small laugh. 'Huh, yeah, I guess, if you wanted it to mean that – it could work.'

Seto closed his eyes again and tried to suppress the smile that was forcing its way back onto his face despite his better judgement. 'So,' he began, talking slowly and clearly as if to straighten things out in his own mind, 'let's recap. You've turned up here unannounced, bringing with you the fantastic gift of a fully-grown cat.' He approached her with a deep scowl on his face but Mai could see the humour glinting in his eyes as she instinctively began backing away, using the large black desk as a barrier. 'A cat that has a tendency towards hiding under furniture and climbing curtains – expensive silk curtains in this case…' He paused momentarily to look ruefully up at the series of small rips and snags that marked Flea's rapid ascent, '…and who I now find out is endearingly named after a parasitic insect!' he slammed both hands down on the desk and glared at Mai who was grinning at him unrepentantly from the opposite side.

'Now, now – ,' she said in a mockingly soothing voice. 'Mokuba said to be nice, remember!'

Seto's eyes widened further. 'You read my private note?!'

'Well it wasn't sealed!'

'You are… I just...' he sighed and sat down heavily on his office chair, leaning back to examine her fully. In all his life he had never come across someone so brazen, so confident, so audacious as Mai. Her behaviour was so… exasperating that he was unsure just how to react. That she kept leaving him speechless was testament to the fact that, somehow, for whatever reason, the woman had the ability to get under his skin – and he wasn't entirely convinced that it was in a good way.

After a moment he leant forward in his chair and, resting his elbows on the desk, he steepled his fingers, still looking at her thoughtfully.

As the silence stretched on, Mai began to feel increasingly hot under his cool gaze. She sat herself in the chair opposite him and mirrored his stance. The confident grin faded until the pair were left looking at each other, eyes locked in mutual contemplation.

'Why a cat?'

'I didn't go shopping for a gift for you if that's you were wondering. It was more a sort of… chance encounter.' She glanced up at the small grey bundle of hair that stared back at her with large black eyes. 'The poor little critter needed a home – '

'And you thought of me?'

'Well, I figure that moody, loner types should stick together, don't you?' she asked as she arched an eyebrow with a small smirk.

Ignoring the dig, Seto sat back in the chair and shook his head as if something didn't quite make sense to him. 'Why me? Couldn't you –'

'It's against the terms of my lease. I had him one night and the super gave me hell. Ripped up all my best silk curtains too.'

Seto gave a brief snort of laughter in appreciation of her sarcasm before fixing his steely stare back on her. 'That still doesn't explain why you came to me. Surely you must have other friends who would be better suited – '

'No.'

'You're saying _I'm_ the best suited to look after a homeless cat?' he asked disbelievingly.

'No, I'm saying I don't have other friends. Not in New York at any rate. I don't really seem to have the knack for making them,' she gave him a rueful grin. 'I told you, us moody, loner types should stick together.'

'Wouldn't that detract slightly from the 'loner' side of it?'

Mai just smiled.

Time seemed to stretch between them once more as he stared at her. For all her teasing and joking around he had noticed a hint of sadness suddenly dimming the brightness in her eyes. Her comment about friendship had been made dismissively, as she seemed to make most comments, but for a moment, just briefly, he felt like she had reached out to him. Now he just had to decide whether to reach back.

He glanced up at the wild eyed cat.

'Okay, I'll take him.'

Mai grinned. 'Oh, thank god – I was thinking I'd have to find a broom from somewhere to try and get him down.'

He stood and walked to the curtain to contemplate his latest acquisition. 'Is there anything else I should know about him? Like any jabs he needs to have done or – '

Mai joined him, folding her arms and craning her neck upwards. 'Oh, I'd just hit him with everything if I were you,' she said nonchalantly. 'Mangy creature like that has probably picked up everything from fleas to rabies.'

Seto looked at her with a deadpan expression. 'That's great.'

She turned to look at him with an expression of genuine gratitude. She reached out and placed one hand on his arm. 'Thank you, Seto.'

Seto felt a wave of pleasure wash over him as he accepted her thanks even though he was unsure as to why such a gesture from her should make him feel so good.

'Yeah well,' he said gruffly trying to disguise his smile, 'I'll get someone from PR down here and get some positive publicity out of it or something – if I can ever get him down from the curtains that is.'

'Well, good luck with that.'

Her hand left his arm and the warm smile was suddenly replaced by her usual brash one. She reached over and grabbed her bag that was hanging off the back of his chair.

Seto blinked in surprise at the abrupt change in her attitude. It was as if all the barriers that had been eroded had reappeared all at once. 'You're leaving?' he asked incredulously.

She turned and gave him a brief shrug. 'Well, you know, people to do, things to see.'

'Shouldn't that be the other way around?'

'My way's more fun,' she purred flirtatiously before winking and walking towards the door.

Seto scowled. He had the nagging feeling that she was manipulating him. Not about the cat – well, not _just_ about the cat at any rate. It was as if she had made the realisation that she had given too much away, made herself seem too vulnerable, and was now trying to over-compensate for it. Her assertive personality had re-emerged with a vengeance and, although her behaviour seemed designed to make her more alluring, for Seto it was having the opposite effect.

He liked her, he admitted - liked her a lot in fact. She was funny, quick-witted, strong and very attractive – even without all the tight clothes and makeup. But, all that said, he couldn't let her keep waltzing into his life thinking she could call all the shots. _Two can play at this_, he decided.

Moving quickly he intercepted her just as she reached the door. She looked at him inquiringly.

'So that's it, you're going to dump an unwanted feline on me and just go?'

'Well, I'm sure you're busy,' she said dismissively and took hold of the door handle.

'I'm always busy.' Mai started to open the door but was surprised when she found his hand suddenly moving to keep it closed. He leaned in close to her. 'That doesn't mean I can't make time for what's important.'

Mai recognised the same words he had used after the incident in the lift. As she recalled the kiss that had followed she felt a tingle run up and down her spine.

Her intention had been to turn up at his office, screw with his head a bit and then leave, preferably with him floundering in her wake. It had worked a treat at the club and, despite one or two moments where her skin had seemed to heat up by a few degrees when he stared at her, she felt that it had gone pretty much in her favour this time too. All that was left to do was for her to get out of his office. She had even planned the walk she would use to cross the reception area – a hip-swing strut that she had mastered in her youth and which had stood her in very good stead ever since. It had all seemed to have been going exactly to plan.

Now though, with his lean body pressed in so close, with a reminder of their past moments of intimacy hanging in the air, suddenly she found her heart beating ten to the dozen. She opened her mouth to say something witty but closed it again when her mind refused to follow through.

Seto bent towards her slowly, his hand reaching out to smooth back a few stray strands of hair at the side of her face. His long fingers gently brushed against her cheek and it felt to Mai as if every nerve ending in her body was suddenly at the spot where he made contact. As he came in closer she could feel the heat from his body and could smell the musky scent of his cologne.

Instinctively she closed her eyes, she moved towards him and her lips parted, ready for the kiss that she felt sure would follow. The seconds seemed to stretch to an eternity as she felt the slightest breeze of his breath on her face and then, with a sudden movement, she felt him pull away.

'I look forward to seeing you again soon, Mai.' Seto's voice was polite but dismissive.

Mai's eyes snapped open to see Seto standing with the door slightly ajar, indicating graciously towards the exit. She blinked once or twice and then, as if in a dream, she walked out the door, all thoughts of the hip-swing strut forgotten as she suddenly had to concentrate on even getting her legs to move in a standard forward motion.

She was half way across the outer office when she turned to look back, a small frown furrowing her brow as if she was at a loss to understand what had just happened.

Seto smiled and gave her a cursory nod which she returned before frowning again. For a moment she looked like she was about to say something and then she shook her head as if trying to dislodge an unfamiliar thought, and continued on her way, almost stumbling out of the office's outer door.

Roland and Andrea looked on in rapt curiosity as the door finally swung closed behind her, then, in unison, they turned to look at their boss.

Seto was leaning up against the door frame of his office with his arms crossed and a look of great satisfaction on his face.

'Huh,' he said after a moment, 'well, that was fun.'

Moving swiftly Seto strode into his office but a moment later came straight back out again.

'Roland,' he said briskly as he shrugged on the overcoat he'd quickly grabbed, 'intensify the search. I want to find her – quickly.'

'But sir, if she was just here didn't she – '

'No, she didn't. She's this side of Central Park if that helps.'

'Not really,' Roland said quietly with a dark frown.

Seto chose to ignore him. 'Andrea, call Mokuba, tell him I'll see him at the deli in ten minutes –'

'But, Mr Kaiba,' she began.

'- if he's still free for lunch.'

'Mr Kaiba!' she repeated sternly. Seto paused and looked at her - Roland had been right about her ability to make him listen when she chose to. 'You have an appointment with Dr Wilkins in fifteen minutes.'

'Ugh,' Seto spat with a look of distaste, 'the shrink, I'd forgotten,' he thought for a moment. 'Cancel it. No – wait,' he grinned, 'when she gets here tell her I'm out but say there's an interesting case for her to study in my office. She'll find him on the curtain rail.'

'Oh,' he added just as he was half way out of the door, 'see if you can get hold of a broom from somewhere.'

As the door closed slowly behind him, Roland and Andrea exchanged a baffled look.

* * *

A/N: Well, I have to agree with Seto, that _was_ fun! Whilst I'm all for girl-power, it was about time Mai got taken down a peg or two - it'll do her good in the long run. And who wouldn't find themselves a little distracted by such a move from a handsome multi-millionaire?!

Thanks again to ARA for helping me track down the errors before posting.

Quite a long chapter (by my standards) but hopefully you enjoyed it.

Let me know ;)


	11. The Opinions of Others Part 1

_Well, I'm back at long last. Sorry for the wait – there's a very good excuse this time but I'll not bore you with it just yet and anyway, it seems like I start every chapter with an excuse!_

_This is a very short chapter. In fact it's just one section of a much longer chapter of about four sections but it's taking me so long to get some of the other sections done that I thought I'd separate it out into bite sized chunks with the philosophy that a short chapter after nearly three months is possibly better than a very long chapter after four months… possibly! The second section of this 'chapter' just needs a final brush down and polish and should be up within a week (get on my case if not!). Then the final bit will hopefully follow on a little after that._

_Thanks go to 5animefan who gave me the proverbial kick up the bum to get something written and posted ;)_

_Jen_

* * *

The Opinions of Others - Part One - Mokuba

Mokuba walked bleary eyed into the casual dining room. It was one of three dining areas that the extensive New York town house accommodated and was the one most frequently used due to its humble size and the fact that it was located directly next to a small kitchen area. There were staff on hand in the house twenty four hours a day to keep the place in order and to prepare food as and when required but, for breakfast at least, the Kaiba brothers had made it a habit to provide for themselves and the small kitchen was exclusively their reserve.

Seto was already up, as usual, and was sat at the wooden table with his coffee placed within easy reach and a copy of Financial Times spread out before him. He looked up as Mokuba entered.

'Morning.'

'Mmpf.'

Mokuba waved a hand in Seto's general direction in acknowledgement of the greeting and stomped, heavy-footed into the kitchen.

Seto went back to his paper and tried to ignore the sound of drawers and cupboards being opened and then slammed shut carelessly as Mokuba prepared his usual breakfast of some obscenely sugary, nutrition-free cereal. Mokuba wasn't a morning person. Seto had often argued that Mokuba ought to stay in bed a little longer, after all, it was bad enough that he had to get up to go to the office so early without Mokuba having to inflict it on himself. However, no matter how Mokuba would curse and stumble through the morning routine, he always made a point to have breakfast with his brother. It was practically the only time he was guaranteed to see him through the day.

A sudden crash followed by a string of expletives, made Seto look up. Mokuba walked back into the dining area, the bottom of his pyjamas dripping with milk and one or two artificially coloured shapes were sticking to his bare feet.

'There's a cat on top of the refrigerator!'

'Yes.'

There was a moment's pause. 'Seto, why is there a cat on top of the refrigerator?'

'It appears he likes heights.' The corner of Seto's mouth twitched imperceptibly even as his gaze returned to the newspaper in front of him.

Mokuba gave his brother a narrowed eyed glare before heading back into the kitchen and returning a few minutes later with a fresh bowl of cereal.

'Did you clear up the mess?'

'I got the worst of it,' Mokuba said as he sat down in the chair across from Seto. 'The cat was watching and hissing at me the whole time, mind you. It's like some demon from hell, where on earth did it come from?'

'He was a gift.'

'You haven't made some new enemies have you?'

Mokuba's comment was met with a dry look.

'Hold on,' Mokuba paused, a spoonful of cereal poised in mid air in front of him, 'that's not what was in the box, was it?'

'What box?'

'The box Mai had with her. It was, wasn't it?' the spoon was dropped back into the bowl causing a small wave of milk to slop over the side. 'Aw man, I knew I should've asked her. I was too distracted by what she wasn't wearing.'

'Mokuba!'

'What?' his tone was defiant even as he tried not to blush under his brother's shocked look. 'I'm not blind you know!'

'Well pretend to be.'

There was a long silence as Mokuba, feeling awkwardly self-conscious, went back to his cereal and Seto tried to get into an article about international currency rates.

'So,' Mokuba said after a few minutes, 'why'd Mai buy you a cat?'

'She didn't. She found a cat and felt I could give it a good home.'

Mokuba frowned in mock confusion. 'Does she even vaguely know you?'

Seto gave up on pretending to read the story and instead levelled a disdainful look at his brother. 'This is a good home is it not?' he asked archly. 'Plus your note said to be 'nice' remember?'

'I meant more sort of, generally. I didn't expect you to take in a mangy-looking cat as a result.'

'Well next time maybe you should be a bit more specific. Anyway, I didn't think you would mind. You're supposed to be the one with the heart.'

'So, what's his name?'

'Flea.'

'As in, runs away a lot?'

'That would be nice wouldn't it?'

Seto almost enjoyed the look of slow realisation that passed across his brother's face – he only hoped that his own expression hadn't been as entertaining to Mai.

'You can't seriously intend on calling it 'Flea'!'

'That's his name.'

'Does it respond to its name?'

'No.'

'Does it respond to anything?'

'A broom handle gets a certain level of reaction.'

'Well then, if the cat doesn't know its name then it doesn't matter if you change it.'

Seto smiled at his brother's logic. 'I'll think about it,' he said.

Taking courage from his brother's good humour Mokuba took a deep breath and, as casually as he could, asked the question that had been burning a hole in his brain for so many weeks. 'So… are you and Mai, you know, seeing each other?'

Seto's smile vanished. 'I'm not sure I want to have this conversation,' he said giving Mokuba a stern look.

Mokuba, long since immune to his brother's glares, simply scowled in frustration. 'Oh c'mon,' he whined, 'I've been really patient up to now. I never said anything after the lift incident, did I?'

'What do you mean? Nothing happened-'

'Oh, it was so obvious! The way the camera feed just happened to stop working and the way the two of you leapt apart when I arrived.'

'That doesn't prove – '

'And that's not even to mention the looks the two of you were giving each other at that club.'

'There weren't any 'looks'.'

'And yesterday at lunch you were all dreamy eyed –'

'Now I definitely draw the line at being described as 'dreamy eyed'.'

'Seto, you drew a smiley face in your coffee froth!'

Seto sat staring, open-mouthed at his little brother, feeling the unfamiliar heat of a blush creeping into his cheeks.

'And all the while,' Mokuba continued, his tone softened in the face of his brother's sudden mortification, 'I sat around patiently and said nothing because I was hoping you would tell me all about it in your own time.'

'Sounds like a good plan to me,' Seto observed caustically, 'what happened?'

'I suddenly remembered that you're stubborn and emotionally shut off.'

'Huh.' Seto took a long, slow sip of his coffee, using the motion to give him time to collect his unsettled thoughts. 'I don't know why you're so curious all of a sudden. You've never shown any interest in the women I've seen before.'

'That's because _you've_ never shown any interest in them either. If any of them had stuck around for more than a week – well, maybe it would be different.'

'Huh.' Seto took another sip whilst staring contemplatively at his little brother. It was only natural that Mokuba should have picked up on a number of the persuasive tricks that Seto frequently used himself in business, but it was more than a little disconcerting to have his little brother turn these tricks against him like this.

Mokuba let the silence hang in the air for a moment before pressing the rare advantage that he felt he had gained. 'So, what is going on?'

Seto sighed and set down his coffee cup. 'Not as much as you probably imagine. On the rare occasions I've actually seen her there's just a lot of talking… and arguing. There's definitely a lot of arguing.'

'She seems like a nice lady.'

'Hmm, she is… mostly.'

'So who's winning?'

'I don't follow?'

'You said there was arguing. So, who's winning?'

'It's not quite like that.'

'C'mon Seto, I know what you're like. Everything is a duel to you. You always see everything in terms of winning and losing.'

'That's not true,' Seto said indignantly, 'why would you think that?'

Mokuba raised an eyebrow and looked hard at his brother.

'…I think I've got the edge at the moment.'

'How come?'

Seto smiled slightly as he remembered the previous day's events. 'Well, let's just say we parted ways yesterday on my terms.'

'So have you got her number?'

'No.'

'But you've got her cat?'

Seto narrowed his eyes at his innocent faced little brother. 'Is there some point you're driving at?'

Mokuba shrugged, 'I'm just asking.'

'One of our guys is supposed to have a lead on her workplace. Hopefully something will come of that today.'

'And what are you going to do once you've found her?'

'I'm not sure.' Seto looked at Mokuba's hopeful face. Theirs was a peculiar relationship: in many ways their bond was closer than that of mere siblings but, at the same time, there was so much that got in the way of them having a normal, casual brotherly friendship. As Seto saw himself reflected in the large, dark grey eyes of his brother he suddenly realised what it was that Mokuba was after, and it wasn't just gossip or intrigue.

'I'm not sure,' Seto repeated after a moment. He shoved his paper to one side and leaned forward in his chair to give Mokuba his full attention, 'why, what do you think I should do?'

Mokuba's grin reached from ear to ear.


	12. The Opinions of Others Part 2

_Okay, so here it is – the second short chapter from a series of what will be either three or four similarly themed, similarly short chapters. This one shifts the focus to Mai (apologies to anyone who wanted to know how the conversation went between Seto and Mokuba – maybe I'll do a one shot about such an event one day but, for now, you'll have to use your imaginations)._

_I hope you all enjoy this and thanks again to everyone who has stuck with the story with all its delays and even more so to everyone who has gone that extra step to actually review – what a wonderful and flattering bunch of people you all are!_

_Jen_

* * *

The Opinions of Others – Part Two

A repetitive buzzing noise woke Mai from her sleep. It was 7am, not a time of day Mai was all that familiar with. With a grunt she twisted round to grab at her phone whose vibrating alarm mode was causing it to judder slowly across her bedside table. Quickly deactivating it she slumped back onto the bed and held the phone aloft to study the small blue screen apprehensively.

It had seemed like such a good idea when she'd arrived home late last night. After a full afternoon and evening mulling over her 'situation' with Seto all she'd managed to accomplish on her own was to get more and more irritable, to the point where Joe had actually insisted she leave early for the safety of himself and everyone else around her. It was then that she had made the decision that she needed to speak to someone. She'd gone so far as to check out some details on the internet to work out the timings and find the number she wanted in an old archived e-mail. Then, at the last moment, as she'd just started to type the numbers into her phone, she'd had a change of heart. _Far better_, she had told herself, _to wait until the morning_. And with that vague logic she had quickly set the alarm and had divested herself temporarily of the responsibility.

Lying on her back staring up at the small phone, Mai felt a peculiar sense of resentment towards her previous-evening self for having put it off until now. _Typical procrastination_ she grumbled whilst simultaneously harbouring the idea of leaving the whole thing until later in the day.

Mai cautiously probed her feelings about the previous day's events, hoping to find that a night's sleep had altered her opinion on the matter. She thought about how wonderfully nervous she had felt as Seto had leaned in close. She thought about the smell of his cologne and the way that his fingers had brushed against her face. She thought about the way that the heat from his body had seemed to warm every inch of her. And then – in her mind's eye she saw herself staring dumbly up at Seto just as he pulled away; the sensation of her legs moving awkwardly as she tried to walk away with a semblance of pride; the stares of Seto's PA and that security guy who always followed Seto around. Mai's whole body shuddered with the mortifying memory.

No, there was nothing else for it; she had to go through with the call. _It might not be too bad_, she tried to convince herself, after all hadn't she heard plenty of other people swearing by this type of thing? Okay, so she'd never done anything like it before herself and, yes, there may have been an element of derision in the way she'd viewed such things in the past, but there was no denying her current predicament. She needed to talk to someone. To someone who would see things from her point of view. She, Mai Valentine, independent, sassy, the antithesis of a giggly, needy, pathetic girl, needed to have a _girly chat_.

Before she could change her mind again, Mai sat up in bed, crossing her long legs underneath her and leaning back against the threadbare headboard. She took a deep breath, pressed the green dial button on her phone and listened to the series of small clicks that meant the call was being connected. As the ring tone began she quickly looked again at the digital time display on the phone, hoping that she'd got her maths right. It was 7am in New York which, if the internet and her calculations were correct, meant it was 8pm in Domino.

'Hello?'

Mai forced herself to sound upbeat. 'Hey, Téa, it's Mai.'

'Mai?'

'Yeah – I, um, I need your advice on something.'

'_My_ advice?'

'Yeah.'

There was a long pause. 'Really?!'

'Yes… really,' Mai's smile was quickly becoming strained. 'So… can you help?'

'Well, yes, sure, I mean I'll try. What's up?'

Mai took another deep breath; time to bite the bullet. 'Okay, well, there's this guy –'

'Are we talking about Kaiba here?'

'Err, maybe. Does it matter?'

'Well, not really I guess only – well, it's so sweet, the two of you hooking up. Well, maybe 'sweet' isn't exactly the right word. Actually, 'scary' is probably more like it,' Téa laughed to herself as, on the other end of the line, Mai's hand gripped the phone a little harder.

'Right.'

'I would never have put the two of you together.'

'Okay.'

'Not in a million years.'

'Uh huh.'

'I mean, you two are the most stubborn, hot-headed people I know.'

'That's nice.'

'And now you're together… It's so… umm, unexpected.'

'Did I mention this is an international call?'

'Right, yes, sorry,' Téa's voice sounded suitably contrite. 'So, what'd Kaiba do?'

'Alright,' Mai shook off the impending wave of irritation. No matter how completely alien this experience was to her, she knew she had to go through with it. 'So… I went to his office yesterday, right? Just to, you know, have a chat and stuff and it was all going well and we'd only had this little argument and I was just about to say goodbye when…'

'Yes?'

'Well, I was saying goodbye and he…'

'Yes?!'

'He umm, well he kind of blocked the door and he leant towards me, like really close and everything.'

'Yes?!!'

'And I was sure he was going to kiss me.'

From the other end of the line came the strange squeaking sound of someone too excited to actually form words.

'But then he didn't.'

The silence stretched across the line. Eventually Téa said sympathetically, 'oh.'

Mai felt a rush of relief. She'd worried that, in telling the story, the whole thing would just sound trivial or worse, funny. If Téa had laughed then Mai had been fully prepared to finish the call there and then but, she reminded herself, hadn't that been exactly why she'd chosen Téa in the first place? Sure the two of them had very little in common but, in this case at least, that very fact would probably work to her advantage. She couldn't help feeling that, had the roles been reversed, then her own levels of sympathy and understanding would have been very limited.

'Oh dear,' Téa continued, 'God, that's awful. What did you do?'

'Nothing, I just left.'

'Do you think that he thought that you thought…?'

'I think so.' Mai allowed herself a small ironic smile as she registered the direction the conversation had taken. How many times had she sneered as she overheard girls gossiping, finishing each other's sentences, talking in great detail about 'boys'? And now here she was…

'Hmm,' Téa's voice cut across her thoughts, 'that's not good.'

'Tell me about it. I feel like a complete idiot.'

'You know there's a good chance he was just messing with your head. This _is_ Kaiba we're talking about here after all. He's all about the game playing isn't he?'

'Yeah, maybe with the cards and the chess and that type of thing but, well, to be honest I didn't think he had all that much experience with women. Let's face it, up to that point I completely had him on the ropes.'

'How do you mean? What have you been doing to him?' Téa's tone became suspicious. 'Mai? What were you doing at his office?'

'Nothing,' Mai said innocently. 'Just stopping by.'

Téa clearly wasn't buying it. 'Mai?'

'I got him a cat,' Mai relented sheepishly.

'Sorry?'

'A cat. I got him a cat.'

'Why?'

'It's a long story. Stray critter, needed a home, that type of thing.'

'And he accepted that?'

'Yep.'

'Didn't he ask why you weren't looking after it yourself?'

'He did, yes.'

'And?'

'I told him my lease wouldn't allow it.'

'Is that true?'

'Not _strictly_.'

'Mai!'

'What? I wanted an excuse to go see him and it's not like he doesn't have the space and the money to spare for a small charity case.'

There was a moment's silence. 'Wow,' Téa sounded like she was mentally shaking herself, 'that's weird.'

'What is?'

'I just got this twinge of sympathy for Kaiba.'

'Very funny.'

'Seriously though, if he took a cat off your hands, well, I think he must really like you.'

'You think?' Mai cringed slightly at the sound of hope that infused her own voice at the thought. 'What about the whole near kiss thing?'

'Well, I'm not saying that he won't also be finding you quite… hard work. He is only human after all. Still, it seems to me that you got off lightly.'

'Hmm,' Mai gave the idea some thought.

'Well?' Téa said brightly after a moment. 'Have I helped? Do you feel better?'

'Well, I'm not sure about being described as 'hard work' but, yeah, I do feel better,' Mai was surprised to find that she actually meant it. 'Thanks Téa.'

'So when are you next seeing him?'

'I don't know, when he finds me I guess.'

Téa laughed incredulously. 'You really make men jump through hoops for you, don't you?'

'It's the only way in my experience. It stops them becoming complacent.'

'That's what I've always admired about you, Mai. That type of thing really would work for you,' something in Téa's tone made Mai wince slightly. Here she was spouting off about her life and it hadn't even crossed her mind to ask Téa about what was going on with her.

There was a moment's uncomfortable silence.

'Hey,' Mai started awkwardly, 'so, umm how's it going with… umm,' she'd been about to say 'Yugi' but then remembered that it wasn't really Yugi that Téa liked so much as that sprity-pharaoh thing inside the pyramid. She'd never quite got how the girl could make the clear distinction and wasn't entirely convinced that Téa had actually made a distinction between them herself – not really.

'Oh, okay. You know, same old story… let's just say it's complicated.'

'Hmm…' Mai nodded sympathetically whilst thinking that 'complicated' really was a huge understatement in this case. 'You know,' she went on slightly self consciously, 'if you ever want to umm, you know talk or stuff…'

'Thanks Mai. I might just do that, especially now I actually have your number.'

'Yeah,' Mai said uncertainly, guiltily aware that she had placed a number block on the call before dialling, 'err, maybe e-mail would be cheaper – I'll text you my address.'

'I think I have it somewhere.'

'No, you don't,' Mai felt another twinge of guilt over the blatantly false e-mail address she'd given to her friends at the night club. Sometimes her efforts to remain independent just seemed rather mean spirited in retrospect. 'I'll send it though.'

'Okay, that'd be cool and I hope things work out for you and Kaiba. You will let me know what happens won't you?'

'Okay,'

'Promise?'

'Promise. You've been great Téa,' Mai said with genuine warmth. 'Oh, and Téa…'

'Yeah?'

'You won't tell the others about all of this will you?'

'Of course not!' Téa sounded shocked at the very thought.

Mai's eyes narrowed, 'you're going to tell them aren't you?' she asked in a deadpan voice, already knowing the answer.

'Just waiting for you to clear the line,' Téa confirmed happily.

Mai just laughed.


	13. The Opinions of Others Part 3

_Three weeks into the Summer hols – I can't believe I haven't had a proper chance to write before now (damn decorating, marking, watching bad afternoon movies (okay, the last one might be my own fault!)). Still, here we are and, with any luck, the next chapter will be up soon. Bear with me though, one other reason I've not written more quickly is that I'm pregnant (exciting & scary in equal measures) and my desk chair is playing merry hell with my back – hmm, how much am I looking forward to being nine months pregnant if it's this bad at five!?_

_Anyway, sorry, as ever, for the delay. I hope you enjoy._

* * *

The Opinions of Others – Part 3

Andrea looked up from her work as the outer door to the office swung open and her boss entered. He stood still as the door closed silently behind him cutting off the low level noise of the communal area on the other side.

Without saying anything she scooted backwards, her chair moving smoothly over the polished wooden floor, and then, with a well practised movement, she swung around and opened up a panel in the wall behind her desk. Inside there was a small sink and a variety of equipment, including a small microwave, a toaster, a kettle and top of the range coffee machine. Andrea pulled a mug out from a small cupboard and, setting it in the correct place, she hit the button marked 'espresso'.

As the dark liquid began to pour from the stainless steel nozzle she looked back towards the young CEO. He hadn't moved but was now gently massaging his temples with his fingertips. _He looks tired_, she thought to herself, well aware that any actual expression of sympathy from her would be met with cold distain. Still, it was true; Seto Kaiba was looking distinctly worn out.

Not that she was surprised. His morning had been taken up with the bi-monthly share-holders' meeting, an event that she'd once had the dubious pleasure of attending during her one month trial period. The meeting had been long, slow and seemed to her to revolve around various people within the company trying to out do one another in terms of their achievements. She had left feeling distinctly irritable, thinking that, if the meeting would be something she would have to regularly attend then it was yet another reason not to stay.

Andrea had already been dubious about working for such a young boss, she'd heard that he was a demanding and somewhat arrogant man and his track record for keeping hold of PA's was not promising; nine young girls had come and gone in the brief time he'd been in charge. The meeting had come in the last week of her trail and, up to that point, Mr Kaiba had hardly said two words to her that did not involve a direct instruction. After the meeting though, as they travelled up together in the lift that was later to be the scene of so much drama, he had looked directly at her and, his piercing blue eyes locking onto hers, he had asked what she had thought of the meeting.

Andrea was an experienced and extremely professional woman who had worked for top ranking business people for most of her adult life. She knew exactly what she ought to say to such a question but, even as the platitude formed in her mind she had recklessly dismissed it. 'It seemed like a lot of posturing to me Mr Kaiba, if you don't mind me saying so,' she had said bluntly. 'There was nothing said that couldn't have been written down in a memo or a short e-mail, and as for the excessive use of holographic technology just to show pie charts... I mean, really!'

He had laughed then, a single barking 'Ha!' that had made his whole face light up. He hadn't said anything else and, when the lift doors had opened he had walked directly to his office without a second glance. A few minutes after she had settled herself back behind the desk though she had received an e-mail.

_Trial ends now. You have the job if you want it. However, the job description has changed very slightly from the advertised: you will __not__ have to join me at pointless, posturing meetings with holographic pie charts. You __will__ be expected to maintain your existing levels of direct honesty._

_S. Kaiba_

_P.S. I need an espresso after any and all such meetings. Please bring it through._

Andrea still kept the e-mail in her archives and would occasionally look at it when Seto was being particularly belligerent or antagonistic. She was still unsure of why it had swayed her; perhaps it was the glimpse of the personality that was kept so well hidden beneath his cold exterior. Perhaps it was because he had used the word 'please' for the first time in nearly a month. Either way, she had taken the job and, over the following fourteen months, she had worked closely enough with him that she now felt attuned to his moods.

His mood now meant that she was already dreading having to give him the messages that had come through over the last few hours. Whilst the rumours about her young boss' arrogance had not been underplayed, no one had ever quite got the measure of just how hard he worked, a fact that was a constant point of admiration for Andrea even though she sometimes wished that he would learn to relax once in a while.

With a vigorous shake of his head, as if trying to shed himself of the remnants of the meeting, Seto moved slowly across the reception area. As he drew level with Andrea's desk he came to a slow stop, resting one hand limply over the top of her computer screen. He took the espresso from her without any outward acknowledgement of gratitude; something she had long become accustomed to.

'Andrea.'

'Mr Kaiba.'

'Any messages?'

'Peterson's PA called. He needs to get together with you to discuss the London case – today if possible.'

Seto grimaced, 'How am I fixed for that?'

'Two o'clock should be doable if you want me to call and arrange it.'

'Mmm,' he said with the slightest shift of his head that Andrea took to be a 'yes'.

'The Manager of that electronics company…' Andrea glanced briefly at her notepad, 'Vimtech, called he's quite eager to set up another meet-.'

'No.'

Andrea nodded and jotted something down next to the note.

'Dr Wilkins is also… _eager to address the situation from yesterday_ and thinks the two of you need _work together to try and stem the harmful negativity that has arisen in your attitude to her sessions_.' Andrea was holding her notepad up like a script and had made a show of reading the message, even affecting a slightly haughty tone which succeeded in drawing a small smile from Seto. Andrea smiled too; something about her young stern-faced boss smiling always seemed to lift her spirits. It didn't seem right somehow that he should be so young and yet so serious all the time.

She put the pad down and leaned forward slightly. 'I know how you feel about it Mr Kaiba,' she said sympathetically, 'but I would suggest you call her. She is only trying to do her job after all and she could make life difficult for you with the directors if she chose to.'

Seto rolled his eyes, 'Okay, okay, I'll call her.'

Andrea sat back in her chair once more. 'Lastly, Roland called. It seems Murdoch has successfully tracked down Miss Valentine to her place of work.'

The change in Seto's countenance was instantaneous. His blue eyes suddenly seemed to shine and he leaned towards Andrea eagerly. 'Where?'

Taken by surprise by the change in mood Andrea hurriedly shuffled through a separate pile of notes on her desk. 'Umm... a bar called Corelli's.'

'Right…' Seto stood upright once more, staring down at the neatly written note that Andrea held. It was a mixture of short and longhand but Andrea knew that he could read all of it, his mastery of shorthand writing being just one of the surprising skills that she'd discovered he had.

'I've e-mailed you the full address and phone number.'

'Great.'

Andrea expected Seto to disappear into his office, maybe check out the details of the bar which seemed to have actually engaged his enthusiasm for a change. Instead he just stood in front of her desk, seemingly lost in thought.

'That's it. No more urgent messages,' Andrea prompted.

'Andrea?' Seto said, as if he hadn't heard her speak.

'Yes, Mr Kaiba?'

'You're a woman.'

Andrea raised an eyebrow. 'Last time I checked Mr Kaiba.'

'What's a good present to get from someone?'

Andrea blinked in surprise. _Well, well_, she thought smugly to herself, _isn't this a turn up for the books_. She knew perfectly well that Seto had dated people in the past – the other PA's (all of them at least twenty years younger than Andrea) had always made a point to show her the articles which talked salaciously of the CEO's supposed romantic entanglements with various society girls, models and actresses, but, up to now, Andrea had never heard any mention of them from her boss, no matter how 'smitten' the gossip magazines claimed he was supposed to be, and certainly no one had ever actually arrived at the office in the way that Miss Valentine had. Mr Kaiba had always been very strict about keeping his private life and his working life separate. In fact, up to the moment when Miss Valentine had strutted confidently into the building, Andrea might have been forgiven for thinking that Seto didn't even have a private life. Whoever the young woman was, she had certainly got his attention in a way that Andrea had never seen before.

'A good present?' Andrea said after a moment. 'Well, that depends.'

'On what?'

'On who the giver is and on what occasion it's being given.'

'How do you mean?' Seto asked eagerly.

'Well, my husband, God rest his soul, once gave me an iron for my birthday. I'd say that wouldn't constitute as a good present.'

Seto nodded seriously, if he had seen the humour in her comment he certainly didn't show it.

'What if you had recently got to know someone and you were hoping to get to know them better?'

'Well then I'd say you can't go far wrong with a nice bunch of flowers, Mr Kaiba.'

'Flowers, right,' Seto was frowning slightly as if working to mentally store the information she was giving him. 'Anything else?'

Andrea was finding it hard not to smile. She was all too used to Seto looking far older than his twenty-one years, far more unusual, if not unheard of, was for him to look like an eager schoolboy desperate to learn something new. 'I wouldn't overdo it too soon,' she said kindly, 'but a small gift, something unique and thoughtful that will mean something to you both. That would go down well with any woman on any occasion.'

'Like what?'

'I can't help you there. You just have to think what you could give her that would show her that you know a little about her and that you've bothered to give it some thought.'

'Right.'

There was another long silence. From the corner of her eye Andrea could see her small switchboard blinking furiously with a number of incoming phone calls. Chatting was all very well but there was work to do.

'Would you like me to arrange some flowers for you Mr Kaiba?' she asked, hoping to snap him out of the thoughtful silence he had lapsed into once more.

'Hmm? Yes, that would be good,' he nodded and began to walk away. 'Make sure they're… pretty,' he added as an afterthought.

'Pretty… right,' Andrea couldn't hold back the smirk any more as, by habit more than anything else, she wrote the shorthand symbol for 'pretty' on her memo pad.

Seto stopped at his office door and turned around. 'Thank you Andrea.'

Andrea smiled up at him. 'It's my pleasure Mr Kaiba.'

He looked at her for a moment as if contemplating something peculiar, then he gave a small smile. 'An iron huh?'

'He only did it the once Mr Kaiba.'


	14. The Opinions of Others Part 4

The Opinions of Others Part 4 – Joe Corelli

Joe Corelli stood in the entrance of the small stairwell which led up to his office, his large figure almost filling the wooden frame of the door. He was holding a large bunch of flowers in the way that someone else might hold onto the rotting carcass of a long dead animal and, to a casual observer, he might have appeared comical. The staff, and even the customers who glanced his way however, made a point of not making eye contact, the way in which he had flung wide the door moments before had been indication enough that he was not in one of his better moods.

An unsettled hush filled the busy bar area as Joe's dark eyes scoured the room, looking for one person in particular. One person who was noticeably, if unsurprisingly, absent from her position behind the bar.

'Josie,' he barked at a young waitress who jumped at the sound of her name, 'did you pass on the message to Valentine?'

'Err, yes Mr Corelli, of course.'

'Then where the hell is she?'

'Err,' Josie looked nervously around the bar area as if hoping that Mai would appear suddenly from under a table, 'I'm not sure. Would you like me to go and find her?'

'Yeah, you do that and whilst you're at it you can tell her that if she's not in my office in one minute she can find herself a new job,' he turned on his heel and stomped loudly up the stairs carelessly bashing the bunch of flowers against the banister as he did so.

He walked into his office and slammed the door. Then, after a moment's thought, he opened the door again hoping that the sound of high heels on bare wooden stairs would allow him enough of a warning to be able to affect the required level of anger at her behaviour.

Getting flowers sent to the bloody bar, who the hell did she think he was, a sodding florist? He slammed the flowers down on his desk causing a small flurry of delicate petals to rise into the air. He knew full well that it wasn't one of the customers, none of them would be so stupid as to get flowers delivered - plus, they really weren't that type of clientele.

Joe looked again at the small attached envelope and the fact that it hadn't been properly sealed, just tucked into itself so that it would take no effort at all to take a quick look at the card and then put it back without anyone being any the wiser. It was something he'd been wanting to do for the last ten minutes and partly explained his irritation and impatience. Someone had sent flowers to Mai Valentine along with a small box that made an intriguing rattling noise, and Joe was itching to know who it was.

He walked over to the small window which overlooked the alleyway to the back of the building and began tapping irritably on the frame. Not for the first time he contemplated whether he had made the right decision in hiring her. Sure she was sassy, fun and good with the customers but she was also very difficult to control, had her own interesting opinions on what constituted as hard work, and came with enough emotional baggage to keep the JFK luggage handlers occupied for a week.

Which, of course, was the crux of the matter.

She'd turned up at his office some months ago now to ask for a job. No, that wasn't right, Joe recalled with a slight smile, she'd turned up to tell him that he was going to give her a job, the fact that he was fully staffed had not caused her a moment's hesitation as she'd proceeded to tell him why giving her a job would be such a wise move on his part. She'd almost made it sound like she was doing him a favour.

It was the type of ballsey behaviour that he was well accustomed to by now but, at the time he'd been rather taken aback and he remembered feeling torn between being impressed or being annoyed.

She had talked at him for about ten minutes before he was finally able to fully impress upon her that he had no job for her to do even though, he had been forced to admit, her qualifications and experience meant that she was almost certainly capable of doing any job at the bar – including his own.

He had walked to the door, explaining as he did so that he would keep her details and would call her if anything came up. He even offered to put her name forward to some of the other bar owners in the vicinity although, even then, he had doubted that they would have thanked him for unleashing her upon them.

It was when he had stood, holding open the door, waiting for her to get up out of the chair she had made herself so at home in, that he had realised that something wasn't quite right.

Instead of the bright and cocky smile she'd worn all through the 'interview' the woman was now frowning. At first he had thought she was angry and he'd felt a wave of irritation thinking that he had been more than generous to her considering the fact that she had turned up uninvited, but then, as they continued to stare at one another, he had realised that it was something different. She wasn't angry, she was worried.

It was then that she had started to really talk. The confident swagger left her completely as she seemed to almost physically shrink down into the chair that she was sitting in. In a voice that had changed abruptly from the chirpy, flirtatious tone she'd been using only moments before she had told him about her last proper job. A job where she had been successful (the blank honesty of the statement had contrasted with the boastful nature of her previous talk) and had made good money but where she had been forced to leave in a hurry. She had told him about the broken contract and some money she'd taken; money that was rightfully hers but which her previous boss wanted back. She told him about the places she'd worked in over the previous few months and how it always seemed to be the way that her past inevitably caught up to her and when people found out who she was they didn't want anything to do with her.

'Who are you?' Joe had asked then, intrigued, despite himself, by her story. 'And, without wanting to be too blunt, what has this got to do with me?'

'I'm Mai Valentine,' she had stated simply.

'Yes, but – '

'I am – was – a top ranking player in the world of Duel Monsters. Until recently I worked under the stage name of Madam Butterfly duelling for the Icarus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.'

Joe had sat up, surprised by the sudden inclusion of a place he knew all too well. 'The Icarus?'

'Yes.'

'So the guy you screwed over – or who thinks you screwed him over –'

'Was Francis Corelli – your brother.'

That had been the clincher of course. The two Corelli brothers had long been locked into a bitter rivalry due to the fact that Francis – or Frank to most people – had managed to gain total control of the family's Icarus hotel chain, gradually marginalising Joe's role almost from existence. Or, as Joe would put it 'The thieving son of a bitch scammed me out of my inheritance'. Not that Joe would often talk about it. In fact, before Mai's appearance on the scene, Joe had managed not to speak or even hear his brother's name for a number of years. It was therefore out of a combined sense of responsibility towards Mai but mostly a deep desire to piss off his older sibling that Joe had consented to give Mai the job at his bar.

Even now the thought of it made him smile but, when he heard the tell tale sound of someone walking up the stairs, he quickly changed his expression to one of stern anger as he turned to face the door.

He needn't have bothered. As Mai strode into the room, without bothering to knock or even hesitate at the door's entrance, she just grinned at him, seemingly completely oblivious to his mood.

'Hey hon, Josie said you wanted to see me?' she threw herself down in the chair across from his desk and stretched out into its worn leather, looking completely at home.

'Yeah, twenty minutes ago,' he snapped. 'It's not on Mai, you need to treat me with a bit more respect. I'm doing you a big favour letting you work here, remember?'

Mai sat up straight and raised her eyebrow at him and Joe could tell that any number of retorts were going through her mind. In the end, however, she just smiled slightly and relaxed back into her seat.

'Whatever,' she said dismissively, 'don't you want to know what I've been doing?'

'What you've been doing is not the point. When I call a member of my staff to my office I expect them to come straight away, not wait half an hour.'

'Half an hour now? Huh, doesn't time fly when you're talking to Joshua Lambert,' she said breezily, picking at her nails and studiously not looking at him.

Joe looked at Mai in surprise. 'Josh Lambert? I didn't know he was back in town?'

'Back in town and with another of his obscenely big bonuses busting through the seams of his back pocket. The guy is clutching a new book which he tells me is 'guaranteed' to give him the edge in any up and coming poker game…' Mai spared Joe a brief look, clearly feeling very pleased with herself. 'He told me that he had been approached by Sam Vinci about a game tomorrow night at The Red House – '

'Vinci?! That poaching little –'

'But now he's heard about the big game we're holding here tomorrow night with yours truly playing – obviously – then he said he'd cancel Vinci and come here instead.'

Joe grinned from ear to ear, all feelings of irritation towards Mai immediately forgotten. Joshua Lambert was a high flying businessman who felt he had a gift for playing poker – despite all the evidence to the contrary. He was arrogant and very self absorbed but his big city bonuses and consistent willingness to bring them to the playing table meant that he was always welcome in Joe's bar.

'Excellent – shouldn't be too hard to set up a game for tomorrow. As soon as everyone hears he's back in town they'll be queuing up to join the table.'

'I'm forgiven then?' Mai said with a knowing smirk on her face.

'Huh? Oh, yeah, you should have said that's what you were doing – I would have understood.'

'Mmm. So, why did you want my company so badly anyway?'

'Oh, right, yeah, these flowers came for you,' Joe reached across the desk and picked up the flowers trying to ignore the leaves and petals that showered around him as he passed them over to Mai.

'Wow, what the hell happened to these? It looks like you've been trying to feed them through your paper shredder,' she said as she took hold of the wilting bouquet and took the small card from the packaging.

'Yeah, um, they were delivered like that – I had a word with the delivery boy.'

Mai carefully laid the flowers back on the desk and opened the small envelope, smiling as she read the message.

Joe looked at her expectantly but, when it became obvious she wasn't about to share the contents with him, he reached back across the desk to the small package. He held it for a moment, waiting for Mai to look up but, despite the message being quite short, it seemed to have fully engrossed her. He looked down at the small box in his hands and surreptitiously lifted a corner.

'Jesus!' Joe jumped backwards, letting the box fall from his hands back onto the desk. The lid fell clear to reveal a small dead bird inside.

'Christ almighty Mai. Who have you pissed off this time?'

'Serves you right for being nosey,' Mai said calmly even as she picked up the box and looked at it curiously.

'What does the card say?'

She handed it to him and he read aloud, '"_I've found you"_?' he looked up at Mai, his expression incredulous. 'And you're not worried by this?!'

She was reaching into the small box where she could see a second small card tucked away down the side.

'Mai,' Joe's voice was suddenly serious, 'you don't think that my brother – '

'No,' Mai smiled warmly at his concern, 'it's not his style is it. Anyway, the card's signed.'

Joe relaxed slightly and looked again at the card noticing the small scribble in the bottom right corner. '"S.K."? You realise that probably stands for Psycho Killer.'

'Joe, that would be PK.'

'Not if his spelling is as bad as his gift choice,' Joe muttered before setting aside the card and looking towards Mai. 'What does the other card say? "I'll kill you in your sleep"?'

Mai laughed and handed him the second card.

'"The flowers are from me, the bird is courtesy of Nomi." Nomi?'

'It's Japanese,' Mai explained taking the card back off him and looking at it with an expression of fondness, 'roughly translated it's 'flea'.'

Joe looked at her blankly for a moment before the realisation came over him. 'Flea? That mangy cat?'

'Yep.'

'So you managed to offload it on someone then?'

'Yep.'

'No wonder they're sending you threatening notes,' Joe shook his head in disgust.

* * *

It was just after one in the morning when Mai stepped out of the darkened bar and into the light drizzle of the cool evening air. 

Shivering slightly she pulled her purple denim jacket more tightly around her and rubbed her hands together for warmth. She had made the decision to leave the flowers, or the battered remains of them, in Joe's office. It seemed a shame but Joe had already promised her replacements, supposedly to thank her for her good work regarding Josh Lambert but more likely, Mai felt, to make up for the guilt he felt for having mutilated them in the first place. She didn't for one minute buy the idea that Seto would have ordered a substandard delivery driver and anyway, Mai could always tell when Joe was lying – a useful tool when she regularly played him at poker.

The bird had been given an unceremonious burial in the large trash can in the alleyway behind the bar. She doubted if even the most romantic and sentimental of women would have kept that as a keepsake. The two cards though were tucked safely into her inner jacket pocket alongside the pack of cards she carried with her as a matter of habit. It was ridiculous that such small rectangles of card with so little writing on them could make her feel so good but just their presence was making her feel slightly giggly and, not for the first time, she found that she had to remind herself that she wasn't a lovesick schoolgirl.

Jamming her hands into the confines of her tight black jeans she lowered her head and was about to begin the tedious walk home when she heard the sound of a car door open and, a moment later the sound of a familiar voice calling her name.

She looked up to see a man climbing out of a sleek black car. The man was tall and slim; statuesque in his posture. In the dim light of the streetlamp she could just make out that he was smiling and, before she could stop herself, she smiled in return.

_He really has found me,_ she thought contentedly as she began walking slowly across the road. _Took him long enough!_

* * *

_A/N: Okay so that last thought from Mai is kind of echoing my own sentiments by this stage! Still, this chapter signals the end of the 'Opinions of Others' segment of the story. Next chapter speeds up the action – literally!_


	15. The Car

_Hi,_

_First off just a quick warning that this is a short chapter. It also ends rather abruptly - sort of a cliff-hanger / teaser chapter if you will. It's an effort on my part to get back into the swing of things as I've neglected this story for far too long. I can't promise any quick updates even if I get lots of encouragement (though don't let that put you off reviewing!) as I'm currently a little over a week away from the due date of my first child (eeeek!) so I have a feeling that my life will be upturned a little in the near future ;) I still really want to finish this story though so don't give up on me!_

_Jen_

* * *

The Car

Seto leant back against his car as he watched Mia walk slowly across the road towards him – deliberately taking her time it seemed, even though the light drizzle had begun to turn into a more persistent rain. The smile she'd greeted him with had been quickly replaced by her more usual smirk although there was still some genuine warmth there.

She stopped directly in front of him and crossed her arms.

'You're out pretty late,' she commented casually. 'Don't tell me, it's someone's birthday and you're hoping to pick up some road kill to slip inside the card?'

Seto smiled, 'You got my gift then?'

Mai's eyes slipped past him and alighted on the car that he was leaning against. Her eyebrow twitched upwards in her interest and, unfolding her arms, she stepped around him and trailed a finger along the smooth curve of the roof, walking around to the bonnet.

'Yeah, I got it although, if you were expecting me to tie a cord around its leg and turn it into a necklace-,' she bent down at the front of the car to look at something closer, 'you're gonna be disappointed.'

'I thought it would work better as a bracelet.'

'Huh,' Mai laughed despite herself. 'You know you haven't got a plate on the front here?'

'It's new. It hasn't been properly registered yet.'

'Should you be driving it then?'

Seto didn't respond although the answer was clear. The car had been Mokuba's idea. The concept that women were very easily impressed by cars had obviously been heavily ingrained upon him though whether that was as a result of his own investigations into the world of romance (the very thought of which made Seto shudder) or simply as a result of too many MTV videos and trashy teen movies, Seto was unsure. He'd agreed to try it simply out of a lack of any better alternatives and he was more than a little bemused by Mai's fascinated reaction. He hadn't expected something so obvious to lure her in, but then he hadn't expected her to be so calm about receiving a dead animal in a box either. That part had been his idea.

Mai stood up once more and continued to trail her fingertips through the droplets of rain on the car's sleek surface, leaving a path where she'd touched it.

'It's nice.'

'Thank you.'

Mai was at the passenger's door now and she hunched down again to peer in the window.

'Very nice,' there was a slight edge to her voice belying an emotion that Seto couldn't quite place. 'You realise that, by the terms of our bet you should give the car to me.'

'What bet?'

'In the lift. You bet me your favourite car.'

Seto smiled at the memory, 'That's right, I did and, of course I intend to honour my promise.'

Mai looked at him with a raised eyebrow, clearly not taking his words at face value. 'You do?' she asked with a hint of surprise.

'Of course I do. I'm a very respectable business man.'

'Riiight. So are you gonna hand the keys over now then?'

'Well, I would, only this isn't my favourite car.'

'No?'

'No, my favourite car is a beaten up old Ford Fiesta – which I guess I could part with if I'm pushed.'

Mai laughed in spite of herself, 'Do you even own a Ford Fiesta?'

Seto shrugged, 'I could.'

'Huh, who'd have thought that Seto Kaiba would try and weasel out of a bet?'

'Hey, I've not claimed that knock off Louis Vuitton bag I won off you and yet you don't see me complaining.'

The pair smiled at each other for a moment, neither seeming to notice that the rain was getting steadily heavier.

'Can I have a go?' Mai asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

Seto blinked, 'What?'

'Driving. This car. Can I have a go? I only live a few blocks away. I'm a good driver.'

Looking back on that moment from the safety of hindsight Seto could never clearly work out why he had agreed to Mai's suggestion. Perhaps it had been the slightly pleading element to her voice, barely noticeable but definitely there. Perhaps it had been the way she had looked at him across the expanse of the car's roof, her eyes glinting with the excitement of the possibilities. Perhaps it was the fact that the rain collected like sparkling droplets in her hair making her seem impossibly beautiful at that moment.

Perhaps he had simply suffered from a momentary bout of extremely poor decision making.

Whatever the reason had been he had shortly found himself adjusting the passenger seat of his own car to accommodate his long legs just as Mai was shifting the position of the driver's seat to bring herself close enough to reach the pedals. She pressed down on the accelerator and then the clutch, satisfying herself that her toes could just reach the floor whilst, off the gas, her high heeled boots would allow her to sit comfortably. She wriggled in the seat, pushing her shoulders back into the leather upholstery. Finally, with a small smile she reached out her hands and, arms extended out straight in front of her, she slowly wrapped her long fingers around the steering wheel.

'Comfortable?' Seto asked.

Mai didn't answer but Seto was sure he had just heard her make a sound akin to a purr.

Slowly, not taking her eyes off the road in front of her, she lowered her hand to the gear stick. Her foot went down on the clutch and she smoothly selected first gear. The car pulled away as if sliding on ice, the engine hummed gently and Seto sat back in his seat, happy to see Mai taking such good control of this powerful machine. A part of him had worried that she might be a bit impetuous behind the wheel, might want to test the limits of what the car could do. As they coasted to a gentle stop at a set of traffic lights however, Seto was forced to admit he had been wrong. He looked across at her expecting to share a warm smile or friendly look but Mai's eyes were still on the road ahead, one hand twined around the wheel while the other hovered lightly above the gear stick. Her expression was difficult to fathom. Her lips were slightly parted with the faintest of smiles but her brow was slightly furrowed as if she was concentrating hard on something. Her eyes were probably the most peculiar though and their look of intensity and excitement made Seto tense slightly in his seat.

'Are you okay?' He asked as the lights turned green and they pulled away slowly, 'You seem a bit…'

'Hmm?' Mai glanced at him distractedly, 'No, no, I'm… fine. Umm… has this car got a stereo?'

'Yes, it's got the latest MP3 tech-'

'Any good albums?' Mai cut across him.

'Err, should be. I asked the dealership to download the top one hundred albums as a starting point. What do you want to listen to?'

'Something… fast.' Mai looked back at the road, her expression becoming even more intense as she did so. Seto felt that her smile could only be described as 'sinister' and he frowned, feeling distinctly ill at ease but he scanned through the music menu system anyway, after all the car was still cruising along smoothly at least five miles an hour beneath the limit, despite the long empty roads that stretched out before them. He could see that they were coming to the end of Fifth Avenue and ahead of them was the dark wall of Central Park. They stopped at another set of lights and Seto selected the album that he thought would be fitting. The volume was at a level which meant that they could still talk comfortably.

Mai's hand slid across the wheel feeling for the driver control stick that she instinctively knew would be there. Her fingertips slid over the ergonomic switches and she gently pushed on the upper one. Her face broke into a grin as she heard the music volume slowly responding.

She hesitated, not wanting to alarm Seto just yet, although, as soon as the lights turned green he would have a pretty good idea –

The lights changed and Mai slammed her foot down on the gas. The car pounced, throwing Seto back in his seat. Looking wildly across at Mai he saw her laughing maniacally. He tried to say something but his words were drowned out by the music which suddenly blasted through the car, swamping his senses.

'What the hell – '

He cried out in surprise as the car suddenly took a sharp right into the park.


	16. The Chase

_Wow it's been a long while since I last wrote, and eventful too. For those of you following my author's notes you'll know that I was heavily pregnant last time and this time I have a son – it's almost like the two things are related ;) Alex was born on the 28th December and is absolutely gorgeous. I now get to write in brief snippets of time between feeds and changes and playing and, well, just staring at him in wonder! _

_To make up for the long wait I present you with a chapter which is at least twice as long as usual and twice as action packed (and considering we had the thrill of Mai opening a present two chapters ago, you might get the idea of the excitement levels you can expect here!). Seriously though, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know!_

_Jensti_

The Chase

In the relatively quiet hours of the early morning, in the residential area north of Central Park, a sleek black executive car was winding through the rain-slicked streets at breakneck speeds; splitting the peaceful silence of the night with a guttural roar of engine noise mixed with the thunderous base of music turned up impossibly high. It was a noise loud enough to wake even the hardened residents of Manhattan although the sound passed by so quickly that many found themselves blinking in their darkened rooms, never fully knowing what had woken them in the first place.

If anyone had been quick enough to be able to take a peek inside the car's blackened windows they would have seen that the vehicle's two occupants were experiencing their evening's jaunt in very different ways.

The blonde female driver was grinning wildly, one hand gripping the wheel at its apex whilst the other hovered over the gear-stick. Her eyes glittered in her excitement and her breathing came in quick gasps, halting altogether whenever she performed a risky manoeuvre; which was frequently.

The male passenger was also finding regular breathing difficult but that was where the similarity ended. He sat stiffly in his seat, one hand braced against the dashboard whilst the other pressed against the window to keep him steady. His long legs pushed against the floor of the car, his feet twitching occasionally as if he were willing into reality his own set of brakes. 

Mai cried out in joy as the car took another corner at high speed but with perfect control. Half way through the turn she slammed her foot back on the accelerator and revelled in the feel of the car responding to her actions with a powerful roar of the engine. She glanced sideways at Seto who was scowling darkly, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. He'd tried to get her to stop, his voice still impressively imposing and strong despite having to be heard over the pounding music. Mai had pretended not to hear, knowing full well that there was nothing Seto could do right now.

Mai had intended to behave, really she had. She was growing to really like Seto and had been giddily pleased when he had turned up outside the bar. She didn't feel the need to let him know how much she liked him just yet but, at the same time, she really hadn't intended to piss him off by joyriding in his car. 

It was just that... well, it was a really nice car. Really nice. Not the type of car that she would ever be able to afford in her lifetime, in fact she doubted if someone like her would even be allowed inside the showroom to breath on such a car – and that seemed a great waste to her mind. That, coupled with the suspicion that Seto would never really push the car to its limits, given what she perceived as his rather more reserved approach to spontaneous thrill seeking, seemed a double waste – a travesty even.

As soon as Mai had tentatively pushed down on the accelerator pedal and had felt the raw simmering power of the vehicle all her good intentions had disappeared and she had known that it was up to her to treat the car as it should be treated. The streets of Manhattan may not have been ideal but at this time of night they were practically empty and the grid system meant that there was unlikely to be any major surprises. Just so long as she avoided the touristy, entertainment districts she felt they would be fine.

As she weaved through some sparse traffic she glanced across at Seto again. His face was difficult to read but he sure didn't look happy and Mai just hoped that she would be able to make him understand her, admittedly flimsy, motives when the ride finally came to an end. 

As the car rounded another bend with a satisfying squeal of tyres Mai caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. 

'Oh crap,' she mumbled.

'What?' Seto shouted above the music, not taking his hands off the dashboard or his eyes off the road ahead.

Mai jabbed at the stereo control, switching off the music and plunging the car's interior into sudden silence. The car slowed slightly.

'You said the car's unregistered, right?' she asked looking distractedly into the rear view mirror.

Seto glanced across at Mai as the car continued to slow by gradual increments. After studying her face for a moment he turned in his seat to look through the rear window where a car was quickly approaching from behind, the flashing red and blue lights confirming his worst fears.

'That's right, and it would have been good if we could have kept a low profile because of that. But I guess that would mean you understanding the concept of 'low profile' first wouldn't it?' he snapped irritably.

Mai ignored him and instead coasted the car to a stop at the roadside.

'Fortunately for us both,' Seto continued as the police car came to a stop behind them, 'I doubt it's anything my lawyers can't sort out… Mai, what are you doing?'

As the car had stopped Mai had shifted the gear stick into neutral, taken her feet off the pedals and had engaged the handbrake but, Seto noticed with slight alarm, she hadn't shut down the engine and now her hand was hovering dangerously above the handbrake lever once more.

'The car's unregistered,' she said thoughtfully as she watched the police officer get out of the car and start to walk towards them through the light rain, 'that means they have no way of tracing it back to you.'

She turned to grin at Seto whose eyes were widening as he realised what she was implying.

'You can't be serious?' he choked even as the police officer instructed them to get out of the car, 'Mai! Are you crazy!'

Mai winked at him. 'Just hold tight hot stuff,' she grinned as she slammed the car into gear and accelerated away with a roar of the engine, 'the way this car moves they don't stand a hope in hell of catching up,' she laughed to herself as she watched the police officer run back to his car gesticulating wildly to his partner. 'Anyway, one cop car is easy at the best of times.'

'You talk as if you have experience in these things?' 

Mai chose not to answer that question, figuring that honesty wasn't what was needed right at this moment. She could already feel his eyes boring into the side of her head and she was, once again, forced to examine her decision making processes. Every time she met up with Seto it seemed that she instinctively did everything in her power to make him hate her. she had treated him really badly at the club (even though she had her reasons) she'd dumped a feral cat on him and now she'd gone for a joyride in his brand new car and, if she didn't think very fast, would most likely get him arrested. It was the type of self-destructive behaviour that would probably warrant some thoughtful introspection at some stage – the car skidded sideways slightly as she took a very fast left turn – now probably wasn't the right time though.

She risked a brief sideways glance at Seto and almost flinched at his baleful expression. She gave him her most self-assured grin, hoping that an outward show of confidence would calm him down. 

It didn't.

'Look, don't worry. I'm not going to let you get in trouble with the cops.'

'Right, because this is really going to help.'

'Look, I told you, one car is – oh,' Mai frowned slightly as a second police car pulled out from a side road, shortening the distance that she'd managed to put between herself and the first car. She turned another corner at speed and narrowly avoided a parked van. 

Seto took a sharp breath through gritted teeth. 'Mai, you're going to get us both killed.'

'Where's your spirit of adventure?' she asked, giving him another bright smile that wasn't returned, 'this is nothing I can't handle. Relax a little won't you.'

'Relax?' Seto was shouting now, his lack of control over the situation staining his tired nerves to their absolute limit. 'I've seen these types of things on TV. They always seem to end with people getting shot, or flipping the car over, or driving themselves over a cliff…'

Mai looked at him quizzically.

'Mokuba likes those sorts of programmes,' he explained irritably. 

'Well, I promise to avoid all the cliffs – okay?' Mai said with a small laugh, desperate to lighten the mood. She sighed as Seto's expression seemed to darken even further.

Mai manoeuvred the car across the lanes as the wail of the sirens trailed her every move. She almost swore as a third car joined the chase, pulling out suddenly from another side road so that Mai had to swerve around it. 

She looked at Seto again. Getting him arrested was pretty likely to be the final straw, she conceded. Treating them mean to keep them keen generally only worked to a limited degree at the best of times. With someone as uptight as Seto... hell, she couldn't believe he'd stuck it out this long. 

She allowed herself a slight pang of regret, partly because a lot of the fun seemed to have gone out of her joyride, partly because of the sudden sense of a good opportunity lost. This thing with Seto had been fun while it had lasted, she thought, but really, who had she been kidding? A guy who could have models, film stars, royalty probably, what could she possibly have that they didn't? What did she ever think she could possibly offer him that he didn't already have – except perhaps a large headache... and an even larger police fine.

'What are you doing now?' Seto asked incredulously as the car began to slow.

Mai shrugged. 'Stopping the car. There's no reason for you to get into more trouble because of me.'

'You wait until you have three police cars chasing you to make this decision?' 

'Sorry Seto, I guess I got a bit carried away. You can tell the cops that it's all my fault if you want.'

Seto frowned, 'It _is_ all your fault,' he pointed out coldly.

Mai didn't answer as she steered the car to a smooth stop in front of a large office building. 

The pair sat for a moment in silence as they heard the wailing sirens speeding towards them.

'What happened to the 'spirit of adventure'?' Seto asked eventually as the police cars came level with them, squealing to a halt and blocking them in on three sides.

Mai shrugged again but still didn't reply. She looked suddenly despondent.

In the police cars there was an obvious reluctance to get out, clearly fearing a repeat of the earlier trick.

'Well it seems a little redundant to stop now,' Seto commented after another long pause.

Mai looked up at him as, on the driver's side, the window was banged sharply by an officer who was leaning out of his car door. She flinched slightly but kept her eyes fixed on Seto, 'I thought you wanted me to stop?'

'I did, back when it was one police car, a minor admin problem with the registration and a probable slap on the wrist for speeding. My lawyers could have dealt with all of that easily. The mess you've created for us now though...'

Mai narrowed her eyes suspiciously, not quite trusting her own understanding of the situation. 'So what are you saying?

Two of the officers had made the decision to leave their cars and were now positioned at Mai's window. One had his baton poised ready to strike at the glass while the other read them their rights. Mai paid them scant attention as she stared at Seto waiting for his answer.

'I'm saying...' he hesitated, not quite believing what he was about to do. The officer swung the baton to hit the driver's side window, it bounced off, the toughened security glass being more than a match for the man's strength. Looking past Mai briefly Seto could see the man rubbing his arm tenderly as the other officer drew his gun. 'I'm saying – _go_!'

Mai didn't need telling twice. She released the handbrake, swung the steering wheel sharply to the left and stamped down on the accelerator. The car mounted the curb, bringing it instantly out of reach of the cops who both instinctively reached towards it. It sped past the police car which had positioned itself in front. Mai drove a little way on the sidewalk before bringing the car back onto the road with an uncomfortable jolt.

One of the police cars, presumably the one where the occupants had refused to get out, sprang into immediate action and for a short while it was right on the tail of the sleek black car but Mai was back to giving this chase her all and she soon built up a more comfortable gap as she weaved through the meagre traffic and made a number of late and extremely fast corners.

'What happened to the idea that I'm going to get you killed?' Mai asked conversationally after a minute or so of concentrated driving.

'I'm not saying you won't. I just don't fancy having to try and untangle the mess you've made. If the media got hold of this fiasco they'd have a field day.'

'But I told you, I don't mind if you make out like it's all my fault.'

'Mai, it _is_ all your fault.'

'Nah uh,' Mai shook her head, 'I was going to stop.'

'Yes, well, if there's a hope in hell that we can get out of this without a whole load of police and media attention then this evening might not be too much of a disaster,' he turned in his seat to look back at the police cars following from a fair distance, 'and if you keep up this pace I guess we might stand a chance,' he conceded grudgingly.

Mai smiled, 'Mr Kaiba, is that a compliment to my driving skills?'

Seto didn't respond, instead he stared intently at a 24 hour convenience store as they sped past it. 'Weren't we here a few minutes ago?' he asked.

Mai looked about her, 'Umm, yes, I think so.'

Seto looked at her sharply. 'Mai,' he said slowly, unsure whether he really wanted to know the answer, 'do you know where you're going?'

Mai kept her eyes on the road, not wanting to meet his gaze, 'Not exactly.' 

'I thought you had a plan?'

'You did?' Mai blinked in genuine surprise, such a show of faith from him was rather flattering, if a little misplaced. 'Well you know I did sorta have a plan at the start but, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure where we are so working out where to go is a bit difficult.'

Seto rolled his eyes and then reached forward to press a small button on the dashboard. An LCD display, measuring not more than five inches square, rose smoothly upwards blinking into life.

'An inbuilt satellite navigation system!' Mai grinned. 'This car is so cool.'

'Hmm, shame I won't be able to drive it again in the state of New York.'

The screen flashed up a message which was echoed by an electronic female voice.

'Searching for satellite signal'

'Cooool,' Mai glanced from the road to the screen and back again, waiting.

'Searching for satellite signal,' the voice repeated.

'Okay,' Mai began tapping lightly on the steering wheel.

'Searching for satellite signal.'

She looked across at Seto. 'Not quite as helpful as I was hoping,' she commented.

'I expect it calibrates quicker when the car's stationary.'

No sooner had the words left his lips than Mai stamped on the brakes. The car skidded slightly throwing the pair forward in their seats. 

'Searching for – please enter destination.'

Seto pushed himself back in his seat and gave Mai a level look. 'Can you warn me when you're going to do that?' he asked coolly as he reached forward to type a zip code into the on screen display.

'So where are we going?'

'In point two miles, turn left,' the electronic voice instructed.

'We're going left.'

'Okay.'

Mai took the turn as indicated, finding herself on a wide road lined with very expensive looking townhouses. 

'Wherever we are it's a nice neighbourhood,' she commented as the buildings whipped past them. 'I bet they even have those fancy doormen during the day.'

'Just keep your eyes on the road.'

With an expanse of road ahead of her Mai pressed down hard on the accelerator, once more feeling the power of the car beneath her and revelling in the speed it gave her.

'Turn left,' the female voice told her calmly and Mai did, spinning the wheel under the palm of one hand as she shifted gear with the other. She let out a yelp of surprise as she found herself on a head on collision course with another car. 

She grabbed the wheel with both hands and took evasive action, partially mounting the curb in order to miss the other vehicle by millimetres. 

'I refer you to my earlier prediction of our imminent deaths,' Seto managed after a moment. 'And I take back any implied compliments about your driving skills.'

'It's not my fault!' Mai gasped, a little shaken by the incident, 'that - that woman directed me down a one way street the wrong way!'

'Wrong direction. Turn around,' the woman chipped in unhelpfully as the small screen flashed red. 

'I think it meant the previous left turn. I believe you're going too fast for it.'

'Well what use is that!'

'It does have a map that you can double check these things with.'

'You told me to keep my eyes on the road!' she glared across at Seto and was astonished to see the faintest hint of a smile on his face. She turned back to the road ahead and felt her own mouth twitch inexplicably.

'Recalculating route,' the sat-nav said calmly, unaware of the near death experience it had caused.

By this stage they had gained quite a bit of time ahead of the police so Mai slowed the car to a halt at the next junction, allowing the sat-nav to catch up.

'Turn right.'

Mai swung out of the junction a little ahead of the first police car which had clearly taken a route that didn't involve navigating a one way street the wrong way. 

Seto looked around him, taking stock of the road they'd just turned onto. 'Ah, I see,' he said thoughtfully after a moment.

'What?'

'I know this road. This is the road I take into work.'

Mai raised her eyebrows waiting for him to expand on the significance of his realisation. She felt that she knew him well enough now to know he wasn't one for idle comments.

'Can you get at least a block ahead of the police do you think?' he asked after a moment's calculation.

Mai looked briefly in her rear view mirror to see the three police cars still following at various distances behind them. 'I expect so,' she said eventually, 'it depends. How long is this road?'

'Long enough I should have thought. Just get as far ahead as possible and be ready to take a right turn when I tell you,' his voice had taken on a commanding quality that Mai instantly found quite attractive. Despite the urgent need to concentrate on the road, Mai allowed herself a quick glance at Seto. His face was stern but not angry, he was frowning in his concentration; his thoughts clearly working furiously to solve the situation they were in, the situation she'd got them in.

The electronic voice broke into her thoughts. 'Turn right.' 

Mai pushed down on the clutch and grabbed hold of the gear stick in anticipation of the turn. She jumped slightly when she felt the soft touch of Seto's hand suddenly resting on hers.

'No, not yet.'

'But she said –'

'Trust me.'

She looked at him again and this time there was no mistaking the soft play of a smile on his lips as he looked back at her. The moment swiftly passed however as he turned back to the road ahead and pointed.

'Okay, next corner - by that bakery.'

'I see it,' she swung the wheel round sharply, changing the gears and applying the brake and then the accelerator with perfect timing. They were on a narrow one way street, mercifully going the right way, either side of them gigantic office blocks made it feel like they were driving through a huge glass chasm although this street clearly only provided the access to service areas.

They were approaching the end of the street when Seto suddenly swung around in his seat, making a motion towards the building on the left hand side.

'What was that?' Mai asked in confusion as Seto settled himself back into his seat.

'Turn left, then left again and then left once more,' he instructed, ignoring Mai's question.

'Wouldn't that take us in a big circle?' She asked even as she took the first of the left turns.

'Yes.'

'Am I still trusting you enough not to ask why we would do that?'

'You're trusting me enough to believe we only have another thirty seconds in which to do it.'

Mai nodded and pushed the car even faster, looking only at the road ahead and the turns she had to make. When it came to the final left turn, the one that would bring them back onto the narrow street, there was no sign of the following police cars, bar the persistent whine of their sirens from at least one turn back. She took the final corner.

'Okay. Now what?' she asked slightly out of breath.

Seto pointed ahead of them to where he'd gesticulated on their first circuit. 'Just after that red sign there you'll need to take a sharp left.'

Mai slowed the car just enough to make the tight turn into what she suddenly recognised was an underground car park. A red and white stripped barrier was descending even as she drove under it, involuntarily ducking as she did so as if it would help. Recovering quickly from the scare of the barrier she let out a high pitched scream as the road suddenly descended in a tight corkscrew twist. She leaned all her weight on the wheel and practically skidded the car down the ramp, only finishing her scream when the ramp opened up into a large space with fifty or so parking bays marked out in white. She stamped on the brake and corrected the wheel, in her panic turning it too far the other way so that the car fishtailed erratically, skidded, and then came to a rocking halt inches from a wall.

The silence that followed was broken only by the ragged breathing of the car's occupants and then, after another few seconds had passed, by the sound of sirens, briefly loud but quickly fading into the distance.

'You could've told me there was a corkscrew ramp,' Mai said once her heart had reverted its activities to her chest rather than her throat. 

'You could've told me you were intending to get us embroiled in a high speed car chase,' Seto countered casually. He glanced over at Mai and smiled. 

She grinned back. 'Aww man that was FUN!' she cried slapping her hands on the steering wheel and stamping her feet quickly in her excitement.

Seto shook his head in wonder. 'You're insane.'

Unclicking her seat belt Mai brought her knees up onto her seat, tucking her legs underneath herself, and turned fully towards him. She gave him a quizzical stare. 'Are you trying to tell me you didn't enjoy that?' she almost laughed at the absurdity of her own suggestion.

Seto raised an eyebrow. 'Mai, you hijacked my car, involved us in a high speed police chase and very nearly got us both killed,' he observed calmly.

Mai waved one hand in the air as if dismissing such trifling problems. 'Yeah, but it was fun though, right?' she demanded still grinning from ear to ear. 'Right!'

When Seto didn't answer Mai clambered ungracefully across the central divide to pin him down in his seat, the tight space forcing her body very close to his. Her head brushed the roof of the car as she stared down at him.

'Just admit that you had some fun tonight,' she insisted poking him gently in the chest.

'When?' he asked gently, teasing her with his calmness, 'when we went down a one way street and nearly died in a head on collision?'

He reached up and gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her excited grin faltered, momentarily replaced by an almost glazed expression.

'Or perhaps when that police officer drew his gun on us? Hmm, it has been one night just full of happy memories,' he smiled.

'Say what you like,' she said, her voice reducing to little more than a whisper, 'you and I both know that it was exciting.'

'Maybe,' he conceded tracing a finger along her jaw-line.

Mai let out a low hum and gazed at Seto with darkened eyes. Her lips parted and she moved slowly towards him, closing the gap between their bodies. He tilted his head back to meet her lips with his own. They were millimetres apart when Mai suddenly moved backwards, leaving Seto staring up at her.

He grinned, 'I knew you'd do that.'

'So you're saying I'm predictable?' she slapped him lightly on the shoulder before tracing her fingers nonchalantly over his chest and smiling at him seductively. 'I'll have to do something about that.'

They came together again, Seto's hands running across Mai's back; Mai's hair falling about her face in a curtain of blonde curls. 

A sudden loud rap on the window right beside them caused them both to jump. Mai cracked her head painfully on the roof and rebounded onto Seto who lost his breath in a whoof of air. Pushing herself up gently she and Seto exchanged a glance before they both looked towards the noise.

Standing at the side of the car, one hand resting on the roof as he leant over to stare in through the darkened glass, was a short man in a pale grey uniform. He rapped his knuckles against the window for a second time.

'Look, I don't know who you are,' he said after a moment, his voice tight with irritation, 'or how you got in here but this is a private car park.' 

Seto made a noise somewhere between a huff of annoyance and a laugh.

'Where are we anyway?' Mai asked in a whisper as the man knocked again on the window; harder this time.

'The underground car park of the Kaiba Corp. offices.'

'Ohhhh,' Mai giggled slightly.

'It's no good pretending you're not there,' the officious man barked. 'It may be blackened glass but I can still make you out!'

Mai sniggered, louder this time, a fit of the giggles overtaking her.

'Stop it,' Seto hissed although he too was grinning.

'If you don't show yourselves right now I'm going to call the police,' the man stated authoritatively. He waited a few seconds before taking out a cell phone and making a big show of typing in the three numbers, even pressing the screen to the window to show that the call was going through. He jumped backwards as the window slowly opened to reveal a mass of blonde hair… belonging to a woman who was sitting facing the wrong way… on top of a man who was… who was…

'Mr Kaiba!' the man gasped hastily disconnecting the call. 'Uh… I… Mr Kaiba.'

'Yes?' Seto asked, his expression as composed and serious as if he were in a boardroom meeting, and not sitting in a car in the early hours of the morning with a woman straddling him.

'I'm so sorry Mr Kaiba,' the man blurted, 'it's just the car - the car wasn't on my list. I thought – that is I assumed – incorrectly of course and I'm –'

'Is there anything else you needed?' Seto asked calmly.

'What? No! No, uh, nothing sir. I'll – I'll just,' he began backing away almost bowing in his clumsy apology. 'Sorry sir… madam.'

'Don't sweat it,' Mai called out after him. She turned back to Seto, 'I seriously don't know how you keep a straight face,' she grinned.

Seto quirked an eyebrow, 'It's one of my many skills,' he told her with a suggestive smile. 

She smiled back and for a moment the two of them sat facing one another with a heavily weighted silence hanging in the air.

'I'm kind of uncomfortable here,' Mai admitted eventually.

'Hmm, I think the moment has been rather shattered,' Seto agreed, wincing as he shifted his position slightly.

'Can you reach the door handle?'

'Yes I think-'

The door swung open in a sudden movement that unbalanced Mai so that her exit from the car was a distinctly ungraceful stumble. She glanced across at a small office at the far end of the car park where a short man in a grey uniform was suddenly shuffling papers in an effort to look like he hadn't been watching.

Seto stepped elegantly from the vehicle and purposefully walked round to open the driver's side door. He took the key from the ignition and placed it deep within his inside jacket pocket.

He looked up at Mai who had followed his movements with interest.

'Never, and I mean _never_ again Valentine,' he said, giving her a stern look as he strode past her towards a distant elevator.

Mai grinned, 'yeah, you loved it,' she said just loud enough for him to hear.


	17. Taking Time

_A/N: I know that the delay has been immense and I've no doubt lost a few readers along the way. For those of you who have seen this come up as a story alert and decided to give it another go, or for those of you who are new to the whole thing let me just say – thanks for taking the time and effort to read this. Hopefully it won't be too much of a burden ;)_

_A quick re-cap of the action – Seto and Mai met up in the very early hours of the morning when Seto finally found out where she worked (or should I say, after Roland did – that poor underappreciated guy!). Turning up in an expensive car got Mai's attention and, due to very poor decision making, Seto let her get behind the wheel. Following an almost inevitable high speed police chase that nearly got them both killed, they have ended up back at Kaiba Corp. and, after an impulsive kiss (interrupted by a surprised car-park attendant) they are now considering what to do next._

_Let me know what you think – I'm a little out of practise!_

* * *

Taking Time

Seto pressed the button to call the elevator and then turned to wait for Mai as she walked towards him, a small frown appearing on her face as she did so.

She stopped in front of him and glanced towards the electronic display that showed speedily decreasing numbers. 'I'm not sure I should be doing this,' she said after a moment's thoughtful silence.

Seto blinked in surprise. 'We're only going up to my office so that I can order a car to take you home,' he said, somewhat taken aback both at her misunderstanding and the fact that she should be so coy all of a sudden, 'I wasn't suggesting anything… else.'

Mai stared at him for a moment before laughing loudly. 'Ha! Yeah, okay hot stuff,' she smirked slapping him on the arm. 'I was more worried about sharing a lift with you, given that last time I nearly died, but it's nice to know you won't be taking advantage of my innocent nature,' she laughed again before giving him a dramatically steamy look. 'Of course if you change your mind…' she said huskily.

Seto frowned, unsure whether she was being serious or not. He was contemplating a response when the elevator pinged and the doors slid open. He entered without a further word.

Mai grinned and stepped in after him.

OooooO

They travelled the 87 floors in a potent silence; at least that's how it seemed to Seto. He didn't seem able to shake Mai's comment from his mind. Whether it had been yet another opportunity for her to tease him or not there was no denying that the idea of himself and Mai Valentine, alone in his office in the middle of the night, despite the innocence of the original intention, had taken on a more interesting twist. He risked a sideways glance in her direction and saw the playful spark in her eyes and the faint smile on her lips. Her mussed hair brought Seto's mind back to the kiss they'd shared in the car just a few minutes earlier. The vivid memory of her warm body; her warm mouth, pressed against his own made the confinement of the lift seem suddenly even more unbearable. He reminded himself of Mai's other comments, about their shared near-death experience in a lift just like this one, he tried to lock on to the residual feelings of alarm and anger that the experience had given him but he very quickly found those thoughts being pushed aside by the awareness of her breathing, the smell of her perfume, the physical closeness of her body.

When the doors finally slid open onto the 86th floor Seto stepped out quickly and with a strange sense of relief.

'This way,' he said, walking purposefully through the communal area towards his office; the motion sensitive lights flickering on as they did so.

Mai followed in what Seto considered to be an ominous silence.

As he entered his personal reception, he turned to her, 'Go on in,' he instructed, with a wave towards the large frosted glass door. 'I'll just be a minute.'

He gave Mai the quickest of glances, just long enough to notice her slightly raised eyebrow and bemused smile before she turned away and pushed open the door and disappeared into his office.

When the door swung shut behind her Seto took a deep breath and collected his somewhat scattered thoughts. It was unlike him not to be in complete control of any situation, let alone one of a sexual nature. In the past, had a woman seduced him, it was because he let it happen and he controlled how the scenario played out. If he ever felt the need to be the seducer, well, that tended to play out as he planned too. His evening so far had certainly been unscripted but that didn't mean it had to go on that way.

As he saw it he had two choices. Plan A was as he had mentioned. He glanced down at the rolodex on Andrea's desk which would contain the number for the cab firm that he occasionally used when his own drivers were unavailable. One call and Mai would be safely on her way home and perhaps he could get a little sleep before work began again in a few hours' time.

Plan B involved two glasses and the vintage bottle of champagne from the fridge behind Andrea's desk.

His finger tapped lightly on the top of the rolodex as he weighed up both options.

It wasn't long before his face was being illuminated by the soft light from the mini-fridge.

OooooO

Entering the office backwards in order to keep his hands free for the bottle and two glasses, Seto had certain thoughts about what he would see when he turned around. He fortified himself for the expected sultry appearance of Mai sprawled across his desk or winking at him coquettishly from the sofa, or even, he grimaced at the thought, the sight of her looking shocked at the presumption that he was showing in bringing in the champagne. Whatever happened he would take charge, he promised himself.

He turned smoothly with a cool smile as he proffered up the glasses and held aloft the champagne bottle. Unfortunately the effect was lost on Mai who was stood with her nose pressed to the window, her hands cupping her eyes to block out the lights and the reflection on the glass.

'This,' Mai said in a muffled voice not taking her eyes from the view, 'this is incredible. It's beautiful!'

Seto smiled at the childish wonder in her voice. He glanced at the view but could see little beyond his own blurred reflection in the glass. He stared for a moment at the tall suave-looking figure; the character that was always in control but yet seemed incapable of predicting the woman in front of him. He quietly placed the bottle and glasses down on the nearest shelf, just behind an old business award which served to block them from view. 'I suppose it is,' he said after a moment. 'To be honest I don't study it all that often.'

Mai turned sharply and looked at him. 'You have a view like this and you don't look at it?' She sounded almost disgusted.

He shrugged, 'It's my work office. I have work to do.'

'Yeah, but you takes breaks and stuff right?'

'Not really.'

Mai frowned, 'Has anyone ever told you, you work too hard?'

Seto smiled slightly as he shucked his long overcoat off his shoulders and threw it over the arm of the sofa, 'I believe Mokuba may have made the observation once or twice.'

Mai stared hard at him for a moment before waving him over. 'Well come here then. If you cup your hands…' she resumed her former pose with her words creating a small circle of condensation on the glass.

Seto shook his head, 'I don't think so,' he stated.

Mai turned and gave him a slightly sad look as if he had disappointed her gravely. 'I don't understand, why wouldn't you – '

'It's easier just to do this,' he said with a small smile before reaching out and flicking a switch that plunged the room into darkness.

At once the windows took on the role of a frame for the glittering night-time vista of Manhattan.

In the darkness Seto could only make out Mai's silhouette against the backdrop but he heard her gasp and found himself feeling pleased that she was so clearly delighted.

As his eyes scanned the familiar view in front of her he wondered if there had been a time when he'd ever been mesmerised by this view. It was certainly beautiful but as much as he thought about it he couldn't recall a time when he'd ever just stood and admired it, or been excited by it as Mai was. In more recent times he struggled to think of when he'd even noticed it.

He walked across the room, his footsteps confident in their familiarity, even in the darkness. Mai had leant herself back against his desk to better take in the sights. Even in the dim lights from the city below he could see that she was smiling and, when she glanced at him briefly as he took his place beside her, she smiled at him too with such genuine warmth that he could only smile in return, feeling a sudden warmth that he felt could not have been matched even if she had been in a more… seductive mood.

It was a few minutes before either of them spoke again.

'I'd never get any work done if I had this office,' Mai said eventually.

'You get used to it.'

Mai thought for a moment, 'That's sad.'

Seto had been thinking much the same thing.

'You should always take time to look at the beautiful things in life.'

Seto laughed at the unexpected comment, 'Did you get that from a fortune cookie?'

'No,' Mai said, slapping him lightly on the arm for his teasing, 'it's just something I think. You know when I was in Vegas I was usually awake at sunrise. Not from getting up early of course, more from not going to bed until really late. Anyway, I would make a point to try and drive out into the desert and watch the sun come up. It was really peaceful and beautiful and completely the opposite of everything Vegas was about. It was always the high point of my day.'

'Sounds nice.'

'Hmm, it's harder to do in New York of course. In my apartment I have to stick my head fully out of the window and crane my neck upwards just to see the sky… I miss the sky.'

There was a long silence again. Seto found himself picturing Mai and her life in Vegas and her life now in New York. It all seemed so wild and free and exuberant, just like Mai herself, but underneath, underneath all of the façade, she showed a yearning for stillness. Just as Seto wished his life were less structured, that he had more time and more freedom to do as he wished; it seemed she was longing just to stay still and simply watch the sunrise.

Mai jumped when Seto suddenly turned to her, 'Can I show you something?'

'Err, sure.'

He opened one of his desk drawers and took something out.

'We need to go down a few floors.'

She quickly followed after him as he strode through the darkness to the door. She hesitated briefly as something on a nearby shelf caught her eye. 'Hey, look, champagne!' she said, 'and glasses. Would've been nice to have been offered -'

Seto grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the office.

OooooO

When they stepped out of the lift Mai froze. They had entered into a huge, dimly-lit duelling arena, clearly the same one that had suffered damage following the bomb as there were signs of ongoing building works. Seto was already striding ahead, making his way through the galleried rows of seats to the furthest end of the arena where there was no damage.

'Seto,' Mai finally called out in a small voice.

He stopped and turned, clearly surprised that she was so far behind.

'Come on, you need to be over here to get the full impact,' he stated before appearing to have suddenly realised something. 'This isn't about duelling,' he explained, 'well, not directly. Come on.' He set off again, his long legs carrying him swiftly across the room to the duelling platform.

Mai followed; at least partially reassured by his comments and also that he was asking her to go to the middle of the arena, not to the opposite platform.

'If you just stand in the middle there,' Seto's voice came, distant and echoey in the vast, dimly lit space.

There was the whirring sound of the player's platform being raised. A moment later she could see Seto's face, under-lit by the display of the duel panel. After pressing a few buttons he placed his card shaped disk into a slot on the side of the platform and then took a duel card from his inside pocket. Mai half expected to see the theatrical flourish with which she'd often seen Seto draw a card into play. Instead he looked at her and hesitated as if he was going to say something before clearly changing his mind and placing the card gently but deliberately into a slot.

At once the air around Mai started to shimmer as a duel monster began to materialise. She'd never stood quite this close before but the effect was one that she was all too familiar with. First there was a small flash of light, followed by what could only be described as an explosion of sparks and then the monster would begin to take form. This time however the explosion of sparks seemed more dense than usual almost like a curtain, a glittering gauze behind which the creature was emerging. She wasn't surprised when she began to make out the form of a majestic, pale-blue dragon, what did surprise her was the fact that it looked so... real.

The holographic technology used by Kaiba Corp. in its gaming platforms had been one of the most incredible innovations in entertainment history. Having life sized 3D imagery which responded to an almost infinite number of gaming variables was a fantastic achievement but there had always been limitations. All creatures had a tendency to appear with a slight transparency for instance, meaning, in certain lights, you could see clear through them, and the colours had always looked rather basic, as if they had been illustrated for a children's cartoon show rather than anything based on real life. But the creature that had formed in front of Mai's widened eyes was so real she almost expected to feel a wave of air when the dragon majestically unfurled its great wings.

'What do you think?'

Mai jumped at the sound of Seto's voice right beside her. She looked at him with her mouth open in wonder.

'She's good, don't you think?' he stepped forward and put his hand out as if to touch the scales of the Blue-Eyes, his fingertips passing through the iridescent surface. 'It's taken me quite a while to update the holographic imaging files to this high definition version of Blue-Eyes, it's not an official Kaiba Corp. project so I've had to use any spare moment I've had to work on it, but I think it's been worth it. Don't you?'

Mai looked from him to the dragon and back again. 'You – you created this?' she asked incredulously taking a step back to fully admire the gossamer wings; the scales which constantly changed colour as they moved: from brilliant white to a pale sky-blue; and the sharp ivory claws that seemed capable of scratching deep gouges into the lino floor of the arena. She bent down to look at them closely, tentatively reaching out a finger watching in awe as it disappeared within the talon's surface. She stood up and beamed happily at Seto before plunging her whole arm into the dragon's chest.

Seto smiled at her reaction though a small part of him wished she would stop stabbing his dragon with various parts of her body as she was doing now.

'Cool!' she said eventually.

'Well, it's not actually a breakthrough or anything; it still uses the current technology, just at a higher bit rate. In fact I don't think it could ever work commercially as the memory required to create the image is way beyond the capacity of the DuelDisk and even in an arena like this you can display the image but you wouldn't be able to have more than one monster on the field at any one time. Of course there might be a case for applications in other fields –'

Mai turned from Seto back to the Blue Eyes, craning her head upwards to examine the creature's face. It looked fierce, just as it always had whenever Mai had seen it in a duel. The eyes were a deep blue and shone with an intense expression of pride and defiance but, looking closer, she could see a softness there too. It was an expression she felt she recognised.

She glanced at Seto again who was still talking about the technicalities that had gone into his programming of the software. Somehow, despite all his talk of bit rates and memory capacity, she doubted that this had simply been a skills-based project for him. She looked once more from the dragon back to Seto.

'It's beautiful.'

Mai's simple statement, said in a small voice that spoke of the deepest sincerity, was enough to stop Seto in his tracks. He looked at her and felt an unexpected wave of pleasure wash over him. He hadn't shown her in order to gain praise, he was confident enough in his own abilities to know that the dragon looked good. It was just that, after her speech in his office earlier he had thought that maybe it was the type of thing she might like to see. Strangely though, the praise, whilst unneeded, felt very good indeed.

'Thank you,' he said, smiling warmly.

There was a moment's slightly awkward silence as they stared at each other. The dragon flapped its giant wings and hunched down so that its snout appeared to rest on the floor directly in front of them.

'I'd better shut it down,' Seto said suddenly, distracted by a thought, 'I don't really want a security guard to be only the second person to see this.' He turned and walked back towards the duelling platform.

'The second person?' Mai asked, following after him. 'You mean-?'

'You're the first.'

Mai stopped in astonishment and looked back at the dragon which had folded its wings over itself in a form of holographic sleep mode. She smiled to herself before turning and quickening her pace to catch up to Seto who was waiting for her on the platform.

They ascended together to the accompanying hum of hydraulics and Seto quickly shut down the image, retrieving the well-used Blue Eyes card and then the handmade graphics card that stored the high definition imaging information. Once he had slid both into the pocket of his trousers (mentally reminding himself to return them to his deck later) he turned back to Mai. She was seemingly oblivious to any of his actions, instead staring wistfully out towards the ranks of empty seats that surrounded the arena.

'Do you miss it?' Seto asked after a moment.

'What?' she jolted herself back from her musings, 'Duel Monsters? Nah,' she waved a hand dismissively before pausing a moment in thought, 'not really. I mean towards the end in Vegas it was… y'know - not good. But I guess I kinda miss the old days. In arenas like this with the crowd cheering me on and that thrill you get,' she turned to Seto with gleaming eyes as she remembered, 'you know, that thrill when you don't know what card you'll draw next but you have to trust that you'll find a workable strategy whatever happens? And those moments when everything is stacked against you and every nerve is on edge and your mind is working over-time, and then you pull out a Harpy Lady and slam it down. Bam!' she banged her hand against the dark console, mimicking her words. She grinned at Seto in the dim light before standing up straight, removing her hand from the panel and smoothing herself down self-consciously. 'Y'know…_those_ times were good.'

Seto smiled, understanding her completely; he rarely competed himself these days, though his reasons for missing out on the duelling experience were clearly quite different from Mai's. He tapped his fingers absentmindedly against the cards in his pocket. 'You know,' he said, 'I'm currently working on a high def' version of Mokuba's favourite card for his birthday. Once I've done that I could easily upgrade one of your Harpy Ladies.'

Mai looked at him in surprise; 'You could? I mean – you would? For me!?' she grinned in excitement before appearing to realise something. She grimaced and shook her head, her face a picture of deep disappointment, 'Nah, y'know, it'd be wasted on me. I mean it would be _great_ and I mean that's – wow, that's a cool offer, but it's bad enough having three disused Harpy Ladies in my deck as it is without the knowledge that one of them'd be a holographic work of art.'

Seto frowned, taping a long finger on the console as if in deep thought. 'Your problem with duelling,' he said not looking at her.

'My curse?'

'Mmm,' Seto's frown deepened as if he were unhappy talking about such concepts, 'is it the same with any other games?'

Mai shrugged, 'Sometimes I wish it was the same with poker,' she joked.

'Games connected to Duel Monsters, I mean.'

Mai raised an eyebrow, 'Like?'

'Dungeon Dice Monsters,'

'That Duke Devlin rip-off?'

'That's the one.'

'Well, I don't know. Like most sane people I've never really played DDM.'

Seto gave a caustic smile, 'I know what you mean. Though of course, being a blatant rip-off means it uses the same characters. So, if you wanted to, you might find you're able to play your Harpy Ladies without-'

'-Without any ancient, mystic, Egyptian voodoo!' Mai finished for him excitedly. 'Do you think that would work?'

Seto shrugged, 'Who knows with ancient, mystic, Egyptian voodoo,' he said dryly.

Mai looked at him sharply but he had already turned to the console and had begun working through a complicated looking menu system that Mai had never even noticed existed on the duelling platform.

'There's an early incarnation of the game uploaded in the system here,' he pressed a final button and the DDM logo appeared as a holographic projection in front of them. He turned to Mai, 'Do you want to give it a go?'

'I can't really remember the rules or how to play,' Mai admitted.

'Mai, _no one_ could ever remember the rules or how to play except Devlin, which is why it was such an utter flop,' he observed coolly. 'We can load a tutorial game and play the two of us against the computer.'

Mai looked at the grid layout that had faintly covered the floor of the arena. Nothing about it was really reminding her of Duel Monsters and she certainly wasn't feeling that strange sense of foreboding that usually overcame her prior to a duel. 'Okay,' she said after a moment, joining Seto at the console, 'and we can select Harpy Lady?'

Seto pressed a button and the game logo transformed into a selection panel filled with familiar and unfamiliar characters which scrolled slowly downwards. 'Harpy Lady,' Seto said suddenly jabbing a finger into the holographic display. He turned and smiled at her, 'There you go.'

Mai smiled back feeling suddenly more complete and more happy than she could remember feeling in years.


	18. Facing East

_A/N – Another long gap between chapters for which I'm very sorry. Still, we're into the summer holidays again here which, as a teacher, is pretty nice. It's allowed me to look into finishing and finessing this chapter at long last at any rate. It's also allowed me to finally get to the 50,000 word mark on the story as a whole which has been just out of my reach for so long – so hooray for me!_

_As it's been such a long time I feel a quick update is in order before I plunge you straight into the chapter which, if you've forgotten where I left off, could be pretty confusing. So, Seto and Mai are at the Kaiba Corp. offices in the early hours of the morning and, in the last chapter, had just embarked on a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters._

_A final note – I may have taken shocking liberties with the rules of DDM but after trying to follow the episodes with Devlin's explanations, I came away with the impression that he was making it up as he went along – so I did the same ;)_

_Enjoy (and review – y'know, if you want to…)_

_Jensti_

Facing East

In the huge and echoey darkness of the indoor arena, a creature, with claws that dragged along the floor and a mouth that was crammed with razor-sharp teeth, stomped towards a stocky looking dwarf. It followed a shining blue path that tracked around the floor beneath it in a maze of random directions and dead ends. Directly ahead of it the dwarf stood on a matching pink path that seemed less well formed but equally chaotic. Just behind the dwarf stood a tall pink tower that showed a single heart that shone in a multitude of colours. Two other hearts were lined up vertically above it but they were dark, having been extinguished a short time earlier.

The dwarf defensively held an axe that had a blade longer than he was tall but despite the size of the blade, he was still hopelessly outsized by the beast before it and when the beast raised itself up and extended out its long claws, preparing to swipe viscously at the dwarf's head, it seemed all would be over swiftly.

But above their heads a large semi-transparent dice was rolling and, when it landed to show a pair of arrows, one pointing up and the other down, the air around the dwarf suddenly shimmered and he disappeared from sight, reappearing some way away in front of a blue tower which also had a single shining heart on its surface. The dwarf swung its huge axe and smashed it into the remaining heart, turning it black. He then stood back, nodding, as if satisfied. Behind it the beast howled silently, evaporating, along with a number of other bizarre creatures on the field, into tiny shards that fell to the floor like confetti before disappearing altogether. The blue pathways all shimmered and vanished and, moments after, the pink ones did too leaving a ghostly transparent grid behind.

Mai Valentine watched all this in shocked silence her jaw slowly moving up and down as she tried to process her thoughts.

'What the hell?!' she finally managed. 'Did that dwarf just – how the hell did – what the –,' Mai's verbalisation of her anger descended into a long list of inventive swearwords interspersed with more generalised, but equally crude observations about the game, the game's designer and, occasionally, the dwarf itself.

Seto continued to stare at the floor of the arena as if still visualising the game's grid. Losing a game, even a game as arbitrary as this one, did not feature in his everyday experience and he was as curious as Mai (albeit in a less colourful way) to figure out what had gone wrong in his strategy. They had been playing for over an hour and a half and, after a few losses early on in the game as they had worked through the finer details of the game's rules, they had begun to make some serious headway. Mai had proved herself a good partner often coming up with unusual ways of taking the advantage in the game which she then supplemented with aggressive battle strategy. Given his experiences of her over the last few weeks, Seto suspected that this strategy served her pretty well in every aspect of her life, not just in computer game play.

Together they had dominated the grid, covering it with blue pathways and filling them with powerful creatures. Harpy Lady had never made an appearance but, as Seto had pointed out, to get a specific monster to the field you needed to select the right dice at the right time and then throw a matching dice in order to stand a chance of summoning it. To his mind the whole game was far too reliant on luck to be any good. But despite this, they had been winning (to Seto's calculations only three moves away from dealing the final blow) when the strange move with the dwarf occurred. It was… irritating.

'It seems,' he said thoughtfully, cutting across Mai's diatribe, 'that under certain specific circumstances you are able to play a dice mid-battle, in this case a movement dice, which not only removed the computer's dwarf from harm but also transported him conveniently to within striking distance of our life – sorry 'heart', points.'

Mai narrowed her eyes, 'Convenient is one word for it. Cheating is another.'

'The computer can't cheat.'

'Yeah, right. I bet _it_ told you that.'

Seto looked at her and her mask of annoyance slipped for a moment as she couldn't help smiling at her own comment. She gave a slight shake of her head as if trying to decide whether she wanted to continue with her rant or simply laugh it off.

'Uh! I tell you,' she continued after a moment but with a noticeable lessening of her previous venom, 'the next time I see Devlin I'm gonna kick his butt for inventing such a dumb ass game. Seriously, who in their right mind would take a game like Duel Monsters and think 'hey, I know, let's make it _more_ complicated'? The guy's a moron.'

'You don't take defeat well do you?' Seto asked casually.

Mai gave him a look, raising her eyebrows, 'Hey, I'm not about to blow up the whole building over it or anything.'

Seto chose not to take the bait. 'So are we playing again to redress the balance?'

'Nah.'

'What, you're going to just… leave it?'

'Yep. It's a stupid game and we lost. If it wasn't such a stupid game we probably wouldn't have lost. I'm happy to leave it at that,' Mai turned away expecting the players' platform to begin its decent. When it remained resolutely where it was she turned back to Seto and was surprised to find him staring back down at the pale empty grid on the arena floor and tapping subconsciously on the control panel in front of him. 'You're just itching to play another game aren't you?' Mai said, bemused.

Seto looked up at her, 'Well, it seems defeatist to just walk away from it.'

'It's not like anyone's watching.'

'That's not the point.'

Mai sighed dramatically and pushed herself into the small gap between Seto and the console. She did her best to ignore the excited tingles that ran up and down her spine as her body brushed against his. 'Seto,' she said seriously, 'you do realise that you don't have to win at everything, right?'

'It's not about winning,' Seto stated, 'It's about not losing.'

Mai rolled her eyes. 'You're a multi-millionaire running one of the most successful companies in the world – I don't think anyone's going to think any less of you for failing to win a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters. Assuming of course that they would ever even know - which they wouldn't because no one's here to see it.'

Seto frowned and glanced back at the console but Mai put her hand on his cheek and guided his face back to look at her.

'Seto, have you ever considered the fact that your life could be a lot simpler if you learned just to let things go sometimes?'

As happened almost instinctively when anyone tried to give him unasked for advice, Seto suddenly found that all manner of acerbic responses popped into his head. Throughout his life people had always felt the need to steer his thinking and his actions. From Ishizu Ishtar to Yugi Muto, people just didn't ever seem to take the hint that he _did_ actually know best and they could therefore keep their, often sanctimonious and always deeply irritating, opinions to themselves.

He opened his mouth but then quickly shut it again. Looking down at Mai he saw in her eyes the same expression he often saw in Mokuba as he questioned why Seto had to work so often, so long and so late. Whilst he automatically railed against anyone ever questioning him or his decisions he could at least recognise when the motives were genuine and good. Keeping this in mind he forced himself to bypass his usual reaction and instead gave a curt nod and said, 'you're right.'

Mai grinned, 'I'm always right.'

Seto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 'Who gives a damn if I lose one stupid nonsensical game, right?' he said in an upbeat manner whilst trying to suppress the knowledge that _he_ cared, very much. He turned back to the control panel and stabbed a slender finger on a button. The holographic game board instantly disappeared and the platform descended slowly. 'Let's get out of here,' he turned purposefully, leaped gracefully down from the platform and made his way towards the elevator that they'd taken on the way down. As he walked he tried to identify his own feelings. He would never have accepted advice from any woman he'd ever dated before now. But advice from Mai… he smiled to himself, realising that, whilst he didn't fully agree with what she'd said, he actually didn't mind the fact that she had spoken up. In fact, knowing her personality, it would have been strange if she hadn't done so.

Mai followed after him with a satisfied grin on her face, feeling like she'd instigated a life-change in Seto. 'I'm proud of you,' she called out to him from a few paces back and Seto felt infinitely glad that she wasn't able to follow up the statement with a patronising pat on the back.

He reached the elevator and pressed the call button; the lift doors opened immediately and he stepped in.

'You know,' Mai said thoughtfully stepping in beside him, 'I heard that Yugi actually beat Devlin himself at Dungeon Dice Monsters once.'

Seto gave Mai a long look.

'I probably shouldn't have said that, huh?' Mai said after a moment's awkward pause.

Seto was surprised by a sudden urge to smile again but he hid this from Mai as the doors onto the arena slid closed.

OooooO

They travelled up in the elevator in silence once again though this time it was less strained and could almost have been described as relaxed. When the doors slid open Mai strode out, confidently taking the lead back to Seto's office. She was liking the fact that she was getting to know her way around so well and was therefore disconcerted to find that the area she had entered was clearly not the communal offices that she had been expecting. As the automatic lights flickered on to illuminate the scene she found that they had entered a stylish reception area which was flanked on three sides by desks which bore more than a passing resemblance to the one that Seto's rather prim PA sat at.

'Welcome to the 85th floor,' Seto said, moving past her towards the desk on the left side of the room. 'Coffee?'

'What time is it?'

'5.17'

'How did you do that? You didn't even look at your watch.'

'I have an incredibly accurate internal body clock,' Seto said nonchalantly as he picked some coffee sachets from a cupboard behind the desk. 'That, and there's a clock on the desk just here.'

Mai gave him a dead pan look, 'And people say you don't have a sense of humour, she said dourly. 'I can't believe it's so late though. The night feels like it's flown by but then it also seems like a lifetime ago that you picked me up in that flash car of yours.'

'Personally I'm still trying to mentally block out the start to our evening. I suspect my future recurrent panic attacks will help to keep it fresh in my mind though.'

'Are you working today?'

'Yes.'

'God, sorry, I didn't mean to keep you up.'

'I like to think I'm old enough to choose my own bedtimes. Anyway, it's hardly the first time I've pulled an all-nighter. 'Cappuccino?'

He opened a panel behind the reception desk to expose a shiny chrome coffee machine.

'Oh, err, yeah – any reason we're not having a coffee in your office? Or, y'know, the outside world?'

Seto flicked a switch and the machine began whirring, 'Have you seen the price of a coffee in this town?'

Seto handed the first small cup to Mai who inhaled the bitter smell hungrily. She waited until he had poured his own cup before asking, 'Why not your office then?'

'Whilst it's true that my office is the largest and the most well fitted out in this building, there is one advantage to _this_ office that means that, on this occasion at least, it surpasses my own.' He moved around Mai and placed a hand on the door handle. 'It faces east,' he said and flung the door wide to let Mai through.

If things had been going according to plan then the interior of the office would have been bathed in the warm glow of a spectacular sunrise with just a few wispy clouds in the sky to pick up the pink and orange rays of the early sun. As it was the sky was a murky grey, a testimony to the night's previous inclement weather. On the far horizon the cloud was breaking, allowing the faintest hints of murky pink to shine through but it was hardly the biggest reveal Seto had ever achieved in his life, or even that night.

'We're probably a little early,' Seto said after a moment, 'I believe sunrise is actually scheduled for nearer six o'clock at this time of year.'

He watched with interest as Mai pushed past him, walking directly to the window. Her expression was hard to read as she stood in silence, her fingers pressed against the glass and her eyes looking out at the grey horizon.

She turned to him and for a second or so Seto thought he had actually angered her. Her brow was furrowed with a deep frown and she stared at him with her mouth slightly open as if she was trying to find the right words to say.

Seto raised an eyebrow, his limitations for the number of times he could be wrong-footed by one woman in one night being severely put to the test, 'Mai?' he ventured with something just shy of impatience.

When she spoke it came out in a rush of breath as if she had been holding something in for some time, 'You –,' she started shakily, 'you are just – you're too much you know that?'

Seto blinked, 'Is that a good thing or –'

The rest of his words were cut off as she suddenly moved towards him and, reaching up, kissed him squarely on the mouth. She held his face firmly in her hands as she pressed her lips hard against his, relaxing slightly as she felt him return the kiss. After a few second she broke away but stayed close, her face an inch away from his.

'It's good,' she breathed looking directly into his eyes, a small smile playing at the edges of her lips. 'It's very good.'

Seto nodded briefly, as if acknowledging to himself that he was back on familiar and understandable territory. 'That's alright then,' he said before reaching down to kiss her again, grabbing her by the waist as he did so and turning around so that she found herself sitting on the desk. Her hands moved to steady herself and she pushed aside a pile of papers. She grabbed at them clumsily as she felt them slide over the side of the desk. She half turned her head and risked a peek but Seto raised his hand to block the view and gently move her face back to meet his.

'Leave it,' he instructed huskily, and Mai found herself only too happy to obey as his kisses intensified.

She didn't even notice when a penholder, two photographs and a desk clock thudded to the floor a few minutes later.

OooooO

Mai's mind was buzzing happily, awash with sensations that made her feel like she was 15 again. Her legs were twined tightly around Seto's hips and one hand clawed against his back, grasping handfuls of his cotton shirt. Her other hand combed the hair at the nape of his neck luxuriating at its softness. Her eyes, half-closed in pleasure, occasionally locked with his and, each time they did she could feel his lips form a smile against her own. The room was getting lighter now, filling with a faint pink glow as the storm clouds gradually broke up to let the sunlight through, but that barely registered through the fog of pleasure she was feeling.

His fingers brushed across her cheek and pushed her hair back and the next thing she knew he was kissing her neck, his warm breath and the sound of his breathing making her whole body tingle. She arched herself backwards slightly allowing him to kiss along her jaw bone. For a moment she felt paralysed by pleasure but then she placed her hand back against his chest and her fingertips felt for the buttons on his shirt. She hesitated in the action of twisting the material to release the fastening and opened her eyes a fraction. The way she felt right now, the way he was making her feel meant that she wanted nothing more that to be washed along with events as they unfolded but she knew, from hard won experience, that such instantaneous gratification often came at the expense of other, more important aspects of a relationship. It had been a long while since she'd cared about such things but the thought of rushing anything with Seto, of skipping any of the enjoyment of getting to know him better, that thought was almost like being doused with cold water.

As if sensing her hesitation Seto too pulled away slightly and looked at her.

'Perhaps we ought to –' he began through shallow breaths.

'Yeah, I think we ought to –'

'Not that I'm not enjoying –'

'God, no. This has been –'

'Great.'

'Amazing.'

'There's no need to rush-'

'None at all. And here really isn't-'

'I guess not.'

They lapsed into silence and the space between them suddenly seemed palpably hot. They stared at each other barely breathing as the moments stretched on.

Seto shook his head abruptly, as if to wake himself from a dream and when he looked back at her he did so with a rueful grin.

'And you say_ I'm_ too much?!'

Mai grinned and pushed him backwards firmly before jumping lithely down from the desk and giving him a lascivious wink, 'I'm hoping I'll find out for sure some day.'

Seto laughed.

'Hey, nice sunrise,' Mai noted, seeing it properly for the first time. She twisted a huge black office chair so that it faced the window and dropped herself heavily into it resting one leg casually over the armrest. She was determined to try and ignore the feelings of intense desire that washed over her whenever she looked at Seto and which threatened to undo her 'saintly' resistance and so, instead she stared straight ahead at the horizon having the nagging feeling that the beautiful tapestry of colour that made up the morning sky wasn't nearly as spectacular as the experience she could have had if she'd allowed herself.

She glanced across to see what Seto was doing and had to bite down hard on her lip to prevent any give away noises when she saw that he was bent over picking up the debris that had fallen to the floor.

'That's strange,' he said, looking up.

Mai looked away quickly and then turned slowly back as if looking to him for the first time. 'Hmm? What's that?'

Seto hesitated a moment as he took in the sight of Mai with her legs akimbo, sprawled in the chair. He blinked a few times.

'Umm, just this,' he held up a card and, by a force of will, took his eyes off Mai. 'It's Felicity Wilkin's business card.'

'Isn't she your shrink?'

'She's my company appointed therapist, yes'

'And, what? You didn't know your colleague had… issues?'

'This is corporate America. Everyone seems to have issues. I don't think I've met a single person over here that doesn't have their own lawyer and their own therapist. It's just strange because I can't imagine anyone voluntarily choosing to see _her_.'

'Maybe that's what their issue is?'

Seto smiled and then shrugged and placed the card back inside the pen holder where it had fallen out.

'Whose office is this anyway? No wait, let me guess. I'm thinking… a woman, in her late thirties who's not married.'

'Your reasoning?'

'Big oversized chair – trying to compensate for something. I'm guessing that you don't have many women at the top of your company so she's trying to make sure her chair says 'I'm big and tough – don't mess with me'. Second, the pictures on the desk are of a young tanned guy. Too young to be husband material which makes me think toy-boy. Lastly, the chair kind of smells of lavender which, in anyone's book, is pretty damn girlie.'

'Some interesting deductions.'

'Am I right?'

'Not on any count. This is the office of Jacob Lang, the youngest ever Kaiba Corp. company executive – apart from myself and Mokuba of course. The photos, charmingly, are of him, the chair could conceivably be compensating for something, it's not something I'd choose to dwell on though. And as for the lavender… it really smells of lavender?'

'Sure, come and see for yourself.'

Seto placed the clock back on the desk and joined Mai at the chair. She was sitting up properly now but even so the act of bending towards her was intoxicating in itself. The chair did, indeed smell of lavender but when he turned to look at her he found his words dry up in his throat. She looked up at him and felt the blood pump faster through her veins. Seto quickly straightened up. He gave a little cough.

'Lavender,' he managed, 'strange.'

He took a small step backwards so that he was leaning against the side of the desk.

'You could join me in the chair y'know. There's plenty of room,' Mai offered shifting sideways and placing her hand gently on the dark leather seat beside her.

Seto gave her a rueful grin. 'Best not I think,' he said warmly and she grinned too before turning slowly back to watch the sunrise with a happy sigh.

The minutes stretched out in a companionable silence as the room grew gradually brighter. In her oversized chair Mai began to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and the cosy sensation of sleepiness creeping over her. The feeling of utter contentment gave her the courage to ask a question she would never have imagined asking of any man before now.

'So…' she started, twisting the chair around slightly to look at Seto, 'what is this?'

Seto raised a quizzical eyebrow, 'How do you mean?'

'I mean, well, where do we go from here?'

He smiled slightly as a gentle blush tinted her cheeks. For someone who was usually so overpoweringly self-confident, he found her faltering questions now were endearing. 'Where do you want it to go?'

Mai, who was alarmed at the sensation of sudden, vague vulnerability and was wondering why she had started this line of conversation at all, sat up in her chair and jabbed Seto in the thigh with a sharp finger. 'Don't turn it back on me,' she said with a grin that she hoped would mask her awkwardness, 'I asked first!'

Seto winced as he rubbed at his thigh in mock pain. He was about to tease her further but then decided against it. He leant back against the desk but kept his eyes on Mai as he gave the matter some thought. 'I don't know, he said eventually, 'I mean, in my experience it tends to be the case that, after about a week or two she, or I, or both of us get bored, stop calling each other, make excuses not to see each other and then she'll go off and sell her story to some trashy magazine.'

Mai blinked at his honesty, 'Right,' she tried to think of what she could say to that. 'Err…'

He gave her a wry smile, 'I was hoping that you might have a better idea.'

Mai laughed at this. 'Are you kidding? You've just described pretty much every relationship I've ever had!' she thought for a moment before adding: 'Except it mostly lasts more than a week and, instead of boredom we both grow to view each other with a deep and bitter hatred. And, rather than sell their story, they'll just steal the money from out of my purse before taking off.'

It was Seto's turn to blink. 'Huh, we must be the last of the great romantics,' he observed dryly.

'If it makes you feel better I promise I won't sell my story.'

Seto nodded, 'And I won't steal from your purse.'

'That doesn't answer the question of where we go from here though.'

'I guess not. Well, have you harboured a deep and bitter hatred for me yet?'

'You certainly seem to invite it but strangely, no. I think… I think you're alright Seto Kaiba.'

'You flatter me.'

'How about you, are you bored of me yet?'

'Mai, I spend my days looking at stock options, profit margins and, if I'm lucky, pages and pages of programming code. You are, without question, the most exciting thing that's happened in my life for a long time.'

'Yeah?'

Seto just smiled and Mai felt a renewed warmth that had nothing to do with the sunlight that was now streaming through the windows.

'I can't guarantee to be able to take you on car chases round New York everyday you know,' she said with a sudden mock seriousness.

Seto laughed, 'Thank heavens for that! I don't think my heart could withstand it.' He looked at her for a long moment and then, as if struck by a sudden thought he turned and started leafing though a tray of paperwork on the desk. Evidently finding what he was searching for he turned back to Mai holding an A5 sized piece of card. 'Come to this on Saturday with me,' he said with a certain insistence that made it sound far more of a demand than a request.

He thrust the card at Mai and, taking it, she could see that it was an invitation. The edges of the card were silver and the lettering was a stylish black against cream and in a font that was so twirly and fancy that some of the smaller writing was actually quite difficult to read. The title was clear enough though and read: 'Kaiba Corporation Annual Charity Gala'.

Seto looked over her shoulder as she read it. 'It's a tedious event that's put on by the company every year,' he explained, 'and it always attracts the most mind-numbing, self-satisfied crowd of socialites you've ever had the misfortune to meet.'

Mai looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. 'Hmm,' she said with fake enthusiasm, 'sounds great.'

He gave her a wry smile and shrugged. 'You don't have to come, I just thought, if you were there, it might make the evening vaguely enjoyable.'

'You flatter me,' Mai commented dryly.

'Will you come?'

'How could I resist?' she batted her eyelids and waved the invite like she were royalty, affecting a voice to match, 'you've made it sound absolutely _magical_!'

'Will you?'

Mai stopped waving the invite and gave him a calculatedly casual shrug. 'Yeah, okay, why not.'

'Good,' he smiled before appearing to suddenly consider something. 'You know it's black tie. Will you have something appropriate –'

'Seto, if you're old enough to choose your own bedtimes I'm definitely old enough to dress myself. Don't sweat it. I can do posh when I need to.'

Seto hesitated a moment before clearly deciding that voicing any further concerns wouldn't be a good idea. He settled back to rest once more against the desk and Mai turned the chair back so that she was looking at the horizon once again.

They settled back into a comfortable silence with Mai thinking happily of fancy invitations and even fancier dresses. She'd have to get herself something new, and shoes and a bag to match, not to mention jewellery. It would be pricey, she would finally have to open up that metal box of hers and make a small withdrawal but she felt it would be worth it. The time was coming up on six thirty now. If she got home and had a quick power-nap she could hit the shops this afternoon…

Seto broke her thoughts with a sudden 'huh!' that made her jump slightly. She turned in her seat.

'What's up with you?'

'I've just devised a fool-proof strategy,' he declared with a smile.

'Strategy? For what?'

'Dungeon Dice Monsters.'

'Is that what you've been thinking about?!' Mai asked feeling slightly miffed that he hadn't been thinking about her. 'I thought you said you were going to forget about it?'

Seto gave a dismissive wave of his hand, 'I was placating you.'

Mai considered this for a moment. _So much for instigating a life change,_ she thought to herself.

Seto, oblivious to her consternation, continued, 'I've just worked out that taking a middle ground approach to dice selection at the beginning is the key. Forget about individual monsters and go with mid-range creatures that will be easy to summon and will allow for board domination in the minimum number of moves.'

'Right,' said Mai, surprised that she had not only followed what he had said but also recognised it as a workable strategy. 'Sounds like you've been giving this a lot of thought.'

He smiled, 'It's amazing how you can focus the mind when there are other things that you need to try and resist thinking about…' the look he gave her then made her spine tingle. 'So, shall we test out my theory?'

Mai had to mentally shake herself free from the improper thoughts that had rushed back into her head following his look. 'Now?!'

'Yes, now.'

He held out a hand to help her up from the chair. When she was standing directly in front of him she gave him a gentle poke in the chest with her finger. 'You'd better be right about this,' she said in her sternest voice, 'I don't think I can stand to lose another game to your cheating computer.'

Seto gave her his most self-assured grin, 'I'm always right,' he said and turned to walk out of the office.

Mai resisted the urge to roll her eyes and followed after him with a smile.


	19. A Day in the Life

_A/N: __Strangely this wasn't the chapter I was intending to post. I had it in mind to skip straight to the Charity Gala Ball but then I found that I had already written almost all of this chapter which sounds a little schizophrenic I know but I guess these are the highs and lows of leaving such long gaps between installments! So, what we have here is an intermediary chapter which, well, it's kind of self explanatory really. For you action junkies out there you can view this as the calm before the storm - it gets a little intense next chapter and, having found a mostly written chapter for this one, I still haven't sated my writing craving so I hope to get the next chapter up sometime soon (or at least before 2011!). _

_I hope you enjoy it - review it if you fancy doing so ;)_

_Jen_

* * *

A Day in the Life

**It was a little after eight in the morning when Seto and Mai celebrated the victory of a second game in a row. They had easily won the first by following Seto's strategy and, at Mai's insistence, they had played another – her reasoning being that winning just one game meant that they were equal with the computer rather than victorious over it. She'd had no argument from Seto on this point.**

**After the game Seto had escorted Mai down to the reception area and had called up one of his drivers to take Mai home. They parted ways fondly but without much intimacy as some of the staff were starting to trickle in through the huge entrance doors at the front of the building. Mai finally relented and gave Seto her cell phone number and Seto promised that he would call with further details about Saturday's Gala Ball. Mai had shrugged lightly and, pretending that she wasn't very excited at the prospect of it, had said that would be 'cool' and then she left.**

**Their respective days following that point went as follows:**

Seto returned up stairs to his office where he took a shower in the adjoining bathroom. After towel drying and quickly styling his hair he picked out a new suit from the small wardrobe of clothes that he kept there. Despite his speed and efficiency he already felt like he was falling behind and by the time that his scheduled 9am meeting was announced by Andrea (who was more than a little curious as to why her young boss was undertaking his morning routine in the office) he felt underprepared and a little irritable. A feeling not helped by his lack of breakfast.

He gathered up the notes, memos and sales figures that he'd not had time to look through and entered the board room with his best, steely, 'don't ask me any questions – I'm not in the mood' look in the hope that this would be enough to convince the people around him that he actually knew everything. Surely the fact that he usually _did_ know everything should stand him in good stead he thought to himself as he took his seat at the head of the long dark wood table.

OooooO

Meanwhile Mai was enjoying the feeling of being driven in luxury in the back of one of Seto's large black Mercedes. She couldn't help but feel a little deflated as the car drove to a smooth stop outside her apartment and she was forced to step out onto a garbage-strewn sidewalk and go in through a grotty door that had peeling maroon paint and had been half covered in posters and adverts. It was difficult, she mused to herself, to keep up the pretence of grandeur if you have to kick aside a neighbour's garbage bag to get up the stairs to where you live.

She stood, leaning against the wall as she methodically undid the three hefty locks on her front door and then rolled around the door frame and into the apartment in a lazy way as a series of beeps started up from the security alarm. She kicked the door shut behind her and punched in the numbers required to shut it off and then walked straight into her bedroom.

The thick curtains, as ever were shut against the morning light, meaning that the room was dark, save for a dull halo of light that came from around the edges of the drapes. Mai never opened the curtains as she figured she was only ever in this room to sleep or to change her clothes, neither of which would benefit from having someone being able to watch her. Also, the view from behind the material was a fire escape and an endless dark brick wall interspersed with small dark windows, and who wanted to look at that?

She stood briefly at the end of the bed and then flopped down face first onto it with the relief of the very tired. After a few moments she shifted herself, lizard-like, up the bed so that her feet weren't poking off the end. Moments after that, she kicked her feet against each other in an attempt to rid herself of boots. When this didn't work she sat up with a 'humpf' and unzipped them properly before throwing them carelessly into the corner. She flopped down again and lay still for almost a minute before something in her jacket pocket began to dig into her ribs. She reached awkwardly into the inner pocket and drew out a wad of playing cards, taking a brief moment to extricate the two hand-written cards that Seto had sent to her along with his gifts. She propped them up against the table lamp with a small smile and then took out the cell phone that acted as her bedside clock and placed it alongside them. Satisfied, she then yanked the jacket off and threw that too into the corner.

Mai closed her eyes but there was a small frown brewing on her forehead. Suddenly she sat up and in a flurry of impatient action she reached down and took her socks off before standing and tugging down her jeans nearly tripping over herself in her eagerness to get them off. Then she threw aside her bed covers, threw herself down and drew them back over herself in an act of finality.

The room was quiet save for the gentle thudding of footsteps from the apartment above and the muffled sound of music from somewhere else in the block. The constant hum of traffic from the streets below softened into a background lull and everything was at peace.

After a few minutes the bedcovers began to move. One cotton mountain after another was created and then sucked back down. Thirty seconds later Mai's arm appeared from under the duvet and protruded out over the edge of the bed. Her fingers loosened and released a delicate black bra which landed with a soft thud on the floor.

Mai gave a long sigh and finally fell asleep.

OooooO

10.35 and Seto was back in his office. He was gradually working through the e-mails and the phone calls that had come in for him so far that day whilst casually flicking through the notes for the next meeting that would follow at two o'clock. Whilst everything he was trying to do was getting done most proficiently, it was clear that he was distracted.

Andrea had noticed it at once, as she brought him in his usual mid-morning coffee and the fresh butter croissant that he'd requested. As he smiled up at her in a vague and totally uncharacteristic way she wondered whether his mood had something to do with the rumours that had been flying around all morning about him. Something about a woman and his new car down in the car park? Andrea made it a point not to listen to rumours about her young boss as there always seemed to be so many of them, but given his late arrival into his office and this constant look of vague distraction – maybe there was something to it after all. She knew better to ask though and, when she set the coffee and croissant down she simply inquired whether there was anything else he wanted and then left quietly when he politely thanked her and said that there wasn't.

Andrea was right about his distraction but wrong about its cause. Whilst thoughts of Mai did occasionally pop, unbidden into his mind, the actual problem was connected to the meeting he'd just come out of. In the meeting there had been much discussion about the development of a new form of game. Something to further the ideas trailed in the whole Legendary Heroes fiasco. Seto had actually been working on something himself over the past year but he didn't share this information with them. In fact, since he had a nagging feeling of being underprepared for the meeting he said very little and instead chose to sit back and let the others work through the issues raised by the plot, game play and programming. This was something he almost never did and it was truly a revelation.

Seto had always assumed he knew about as much, perhaps a little more, than everyone else in the room due to the fact that he did his preparation. He read the notes provided before every meeting and he often did a little wider reading around the subject if it was new technology or there was some topical business issue that may have been reported in the news that week. It had never occurred to him that he knew more than his colleagues simply because he was vastly cleverer than they were. Sitting in that meeting and not taking the lead as he usually did, just showed him how completely reliant they were upon him. Not providing the ideas to move the meeting forward meant that the meeting stalled several times and his highly paid executives stuttered and mumbled their way through to insufficient solutions. And all the while Seto sat and silently figured out the problems and found solutions and then wondered why not one of his 'expert' team were providing them too. It reminded him very much of his early years at school when he had assumed that he was top of the class because he simply worked harder at his homework. It was only after he had missed a week due to illness and had been forced to come back mid-topic and had still found himself way ahead of his classmates, that it had occurred to him that they simply didn't understand things the way he did. It had bothered him then and it bothered him now, not least because he hadn't seen it sooner.

Eventually, after watching their incompetence became too much, Seto stood up and, ignoring the fact that the room had gone instantly quiet, he walked to the large display board and began drawing a diagram of a circuit board that would adequately handle the virtual reality programming that would be required for the game. The board filled with connections and symbols and codes until over half of it was covered. Seto turned silently to the bemused team.

'There,' he said quietly, 'it's not hard.'

Then he walked out.

The rest of the team quickly began copying down the diagram, jostling to get the best spot until one young executive, by the name of Jacob Lang, stood on the desk and took out his cell phone and took a photo with it. The rest quickly set aside their rough drawings and did the same.

OooooO

A series of small moans and whimpers were coming from the pile of bedclothes in Mai's bedroom. In her sleep she began shaking her head her lips trembling against some unseen terror. With a sudden gasp Mai's eyes shot open and she stared sightlessly at the ceiling, short breaths coming from her throat as if she had been exerting herself. After a moment she held her breath and blinked her eyes, when she started breathing again it was more regular. She clicked the central button of her phone to light the screen and see the clock: 11.52am. She forced her body to relax and sank further into her pillows. She didn't need to think about the nightmare; in fact she consciously tried not to give it any thought whatsoever. After all it was just the same nightmare that she'd had ever since her visit to the Shadow Realm. Hourglass, shouting for help, no one hearing her, drowning in sand blah blah blah. It was tedious more than anything and annoying that her subconscious mind still chose to drag it out every night and be terrified by it.

She sighed deeply and closed her eyes, searching through her mind like a rolodex of mental images for the things that would settle her thoughts. Usually she would choose something from the times she had spent with Yugi and the guys, or when she'd just started out working on the cruise ships, sometimes she even thought of the small farm her parents had bought just before she left home. She was flicking through the familiar memories trying to find the right one that would force back the darkness of her nightmare and send her back to sleep, when the image of Seto sprang into her mind. Behind him was a shining Blue Eyes with sparking gossamer scales. When it spread its wings it was as if the darkness simply evaporated. Mai sighed again, more softly this time, and fell back to sleep with a smile.

OooooO

2.32pm. Another meeting. Another set of problems and another set of supposed experts missing the blindingly obvious solutions. Seto wasn't even listening anymore as, for the last ten minutes or so, the conversation had gone in circles where the seven people present had debated the theoretical implementation of a new coding batch.

Seto took a sip of his coffee and let his eyes wander to the window. They were a few floors down from his office but still the view was pretty impressive. He looked across at all the windows of all the office blocks and tried to imagine just how many other people were in meetings right now. How many people were sat behind desks reading reports or drafting memos? Not Mai Valentine, that was for sure. He tried to picture what she was doing right now and the image of her came so vividly to his mind that he found himself suddenly smiling.

'Mr Kaiba?'

'Hmm?' Seto straightened his look back into its usual stern gaze as he glanced across at a desk full of expectant faces.

'What do you think we should do?' it was one of the programming guys who asked this, in a tone that sounded like a petulant child running to a parent to settle a dispute they couldn't win themselves. 'Don't you think that we should look into the redesign now and – '

'There's nothing wrong with this design!' insisted the woman, appealing directly to Seto but with a scathing sideways glance at her colleague. 'Why start redesigning –'

'What -,' Seto started quietly. The woman was immediately quiet; all eyes looked at him waiting for his decision. 'What if I wasn't here today? What would you do about this problem?'

'Are you feeling unwell, sir?' asked someone at the end of the table, matching it with a sympathetic tilt of his head that Seto found at once amusing and patronising.

'No, I'm feeling fine. I just wonder, if I had just chosen to take the day off, what would you do?'

A low buzz went around the room and Seto watched in bemusement as his colleagues all looked at each other as if they were in a classroom and their teacher had just asked them an impossible question.

'Err,' one of the junior programming executives put up his hand hesitantly, 'we could set up a conference call…'

Seto sat forward and shook his head, 'No calls.'

'Would you be in on Monday, sir?' ventured a female systems analyst, 'We could postp-'

'No.' Seto said slowly. 'Not Monday, not - , ' he added quickly as another hand went up, 'not the next day either.' The man put his hand down looking embarrassed.

There was a long silence and then the female programmer put her hand up.

'I –,' she began, hesitating until Seto gave her a nod to continue. 'I would take the existing ideas down to tech and get them to run over it to make sure there are no major problems with the fundamental concepts and then, if they say it's okay, I would run it into pre-build programme testing.'

'Would the rest of you agree with that?'

There were a series of mumbles that mostly seemed to say that they would.

'Well, go do it then,' Seto waved his hand as if to shoo them away, 'Go on!'

After a slight hesitation the room began to empty. The junior executive waited by the door for a moment.

'I hope you feel better soon, sir,' he said with an ingratiating smile.

Seto watched him go and then slumped back in his chair with a long sigh.

OooooO

The first thing that Mai noticed when she next opened her eyes was that the room was dark and not just from the usual gloom of unopened curtains. She sat up and grabbed her cell phone, clicking a central button to illuminate the screen.

She read the time. 5.27pm.

'Oh, crap.'

She got out of bed in a manner that was somewhat short of enthusiastic and made a quick calculation. She had time to grab some food or to have a shower but not both. She walked into her bathroom and dragged her fingers through her hair appraisingly. She could probably get away without washing it if she tied it back, but tonight was the big poker game and her hair always came in handy as a screen through which to watch the expressions of the players around her. It was also useful as a bluff. She knew Joe at least thought the act of twirling her hair around her finger was a 'tell' by which he presumed to know how good her hand was. Having a false 'tell' could be invaluable, especially on a night like this when stakes were likely to be high what with everyone so keen to redistribute Josh Lambert's big city bonus.

She stepped into the shower thinking of the night ahead and what she would spend her winnings on. Hopefully it would be enough to cover a dress, new pair of shoes and maybe even a small bag, not that she usually bothered with small bags and certainly not those ridiculous clutch bags that were only big enough to fit a pair of earrings and a credit card. Earrings, she could get some of those too; and a necklace if the dress would suit it. She gave herself over to musing about what style of dress she would get as she stood under the hot water and let the shower wash the shampoo from her hair. She was still musing ten minutes later when she rinsed out the conditioner and noticed for the first time just how steamy her small bathroom had become, indicating that she had been in there a little longer than intended. She grabbed the towel and ran through to her bedroom again, picking up the cell phone and lighting up the screen. 5.52pm.

'Damn it!'

_No more thinking_, she told herself sternly as she roughly towel dried her hair. She dragged clean clothes onto a still damp body and grabbed some essential makeup to take to work with her. She caught sight of herself in the long bedroom mirror. _Josh_ _Lambert will just have to be beaten by good old fashioned skill_, she thought to herself, _'cos he sure as hell isn't gonna be distracted by my good looks!_ She set the alarm and headed out.

OooooO

It was semi dark in Seto's office when Andrea knocked on the door. She had noticed that the lights had been turned down half an hour before but just assumed that her boss was studying some holographic projections that were often best studied in half light. She was surprised therefore to find him sitting on his desk with his back to the door and looking out at the darkened skyline.

Andrea coughed gently to make sure he knew she was there as he had shown no visible response to her entrance. 'It's five minutes to six, Mr Kaiba. Is there anything I can do for you?'

Andrea always left the office at six o'clock on the dot every day. When she'd started working for him she had said that she saw it as a professional duty not to leave work before her boss did. Seto had immediately told her not to bother and, after the first week where she'd found herself still at her desk well after 10pm almost every night, she'd agreed. She was paid well, after all, but not _that_ well. Ever since then they had established the routine whereby she would give him five minutes warning of her departure, offer to work longer and he would decline her offer and tell her that she was welcome to go home.

It was a familiar and rather comforting ritual for both. So familiar in fact that Andrea had already turned to go back to her desk when Seto called her name.

'Mr Kaiba?'

He still had his back to her but she could see that he was looking at her reflection in the glass. 'Have you ever really noticed this view?' he asked in a soft voice.

Andrea looked out at the city beyond the glass. 'Well, yes,' she said, 'it does rather constitute a main feature of your office, Mr Kaiba; it's kind of hard to miss.'

'Is it?'

Andrea wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, given the fact that she made a point of looking at his office view for at least a few minutes every day. Having an interior working space with no direct outside views tended to make one a little more appreciative of such things. But was her boss really implying that he _didn't_ notice it? It seemed inconceivable.

Seto had turned around when the silence had lingered and he saw Andrea's confusion. 'Sorry, Andrea,' he gave a slight wave as if dismissing the conversation, 'you're welcome to go home. Thank you for your work today.' He turned back to the window.

Andrea nodded but hesitated on the threshold of the office. 'Mr Kaiba,' she began tentatively, 'if you don't mind me asking, are you okay? You just seem to be a little… out of sorts today?'

Seto raised an eyebrow and half turned towards her, 'I do?'

'A little, sir. I was just wondering, there was a rumour going round, that you were ill?'

Seto laughed then, a loud warm laugh that Andrea had never heard from him before. He turned and gave her a grin. 'I'm not ill; I can assure you that I'm not ill,' he ran his fingers through his hair, pushing his fringe back so that she could see his intense blue eyes. He shook his head slightly. 'It's just been a strange day, that's all. I guess it'll teach me not to stay up all night and then work all day. Next time I'll remember to take the day off. In fact,' he jumped lithely off the desk, grabbed his jacket and walked towards her, 'I'm going home now.'

'Really?!' if he had said that he was going to travel to the moon Andrea could not have been more surprised by this statement.

'And I'm not going to be in on Monday,' he added, as if making the split second decision, 'not because I'm ill or I'm tracking down would be assassins or I'm taking part in some magically twisted card game tournament, but just because I am choosing not to be in.'

He stood in front of her with a large smile on his face that Andrea found to be quite infectious, 'That's a fine choice, Mr Kaiba,' she said with a small laugh.

'I apologise that I haven't given longer notice. I'm sure you'll have a hell of a day fielding all the calls for me. Just do me a favour and try to keep rumours of my death to a minimum, will you?'

'I'll do my best, sir,' she said as he opened the door for them both to go through. 'Oh, Mr Kaiba,' she called after him as his long strides took him quickly towards the outer door, 'will you still be attending the Charity Gala Ball tomorrow night?'

'Oh yes,' he called cheerily over his shoulder, 'It should be fun.'

She blinked and shook her head as the door swung closed behind him. He really was in an odd mood, she thought, if he was going to start describing the Charity Gala Ball as 'fun'. She collected her belongings together and felt a great sense of satisfaction as she turned off all the office lights and shut the door behind her.


	20. The Gala Ball

_A/N - Okay, so here it is, a rare and speedy update! And, even more rare, something semi-dramatic happens ;)_

_I really hope people are still enjoying this. I'll admit to missing hearing from some of my old regulars like AvidReaderAlso, Valexa Kaiba, Lady Luck, 5animefan, jellybean-kitty, kitty kibitzer, astrya animelover6000 and the rest of you guys who have ever taken time to write a review. It's totally understandable that people are drifing away from this story given the lengeth of time it takes to update and the fact that, over here at least, YuGiOh has been off the screens for a while, but, if you're still out there and enjoying it, drop me a line - even if it's just a quick line to say - Hey, Jensti, stop being such a whiny limey and get over yourself already ;) I'm sure Shakuhachi will be first in line to do just that!_

_Enjoy!_

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The Sixth Annual Kaiba Corporation Charity Gala Ball

Andrea walked up the steps to the entrance of Kaiba Corp. already feeling the pinch of her high heels. Not that this was the first time she'd worn them but, given how few times they had ever been taken out of Andrea's wardrobe in the four years she'd owned them, they looked like new and, more importantly, felt like new. She walked through the reception area past a milling crowd of young catering staff and events organisers. The surface chaos indicated that the place would be nowhere near ready for 7.30 but Andrea wasn't about to get involved. From her experience the last minute problems tended to iron themselves out in time to avoid any major catastrophe and the organisers, who were darting here and there and barking orders in strained voices, were mostly enjoying the drama that they were creating around themselves. She approached the front desk in the hope of finding a friendly face and, peering over the computer, she found Roland sitting on the floor surrounded by a tangle of wires.

Andrea smiled. If she had been a betting lady she would have put money on finding him here. 'Good evening, Roland.'

'Oh, hey, evening Andrea,' Roland replied, barely looking up from the connector cables he was grappling with.

Andrea took off her coat and walked around the desk to hang it on a peg behind a dividing wall. She stepped over the wires, careful not to dislodge anything. 'Same old problems?'

'Every year. I swear I could take a month putting these cables back in their correct boxes and separating them out and I'd still come back to them and find them a tangled mess. It's like Christmas lights,' he sighed and looked up at her again, 'hey, you look nice. New dress?'

Andrea smiled at the compliment as she smoothed down her demure maroon dress self consciously. 'Well, it's been a while since I treated myself,' she said modestly.

'I've got to go and get myself changed too – once I've sorted out these ticket scanners. Why people try to falsify tickets to get into this place I'll never know.'

'Oh, well, haven't you heard? It's going to be 'fun' tonight.'

Roland snorted, 'Who said that?'

'Mr Kaiba.'

'What?' he sat up, 'are you serious?'

'Sure am.'

Roland thought for a moment. 'Was he being sarcastic?'

Andrea smiled and shrugged, 'I really don't think he was.'

'Wow,' there was another moment's silence as Roland absorbed this information. 'You know why it might be though? I got a call from him yesterday asking me to arrange for our best limousine to pick up none other than Mai Valentine tonight.'

'Ahh, that does make a bit more sense. Well, good for him. If she's encouraging him to leave work on time and take a day off then I approve.'

'Hold on, he's taking a day off?'

'On Monday.'

Roland blinked and then shook his head in wonder. 'Wow.'

'Is he here yet?'

'Up in his office. He said he had some research to do.'

'That sounds a little more like our regular universe doesn't it? I'd best go and find him. It's only 45 minutes until the start time on the invite. The eager ones are bound to begin arriving soon.'

'Uugh,' Roland pulled a face, 'fun - smun, I don't care what anyone says, I hate this night.'

Andrea nodded in agreement before tottering awkwardly towards the elevators cursing the invention of painful high heeled shoes.

OooooO

Seto Kaiba flicked through the New York 'Fun Day Out' guide searching for some inspiration. He hadn't asked Mai if she was around on Monday to spend the day with him but he thought that it might sound better when he did ask if he had some firm ideas on what to do. The only problem was that he couldn't think of anything. He'd picked up a large wad of leaflets that all claimed to be full of ideas but unless he wanted to visit a museum, gallery or large statue lady on an island, most of these ideas revolved around kids and family. Of course he could take Mia out in the jet plane and head somewhere special or even charter the company helicopter but after the whole episode with his car, he wanted to avoid any types of vehicle if he could help it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a light tap on the door and Andrea entered, holding a pair of shoes in one hand and the hem of her floor length dress in the other.

'Don't tell me people are arriving already?'

'It won't be long I'm afraid. Have you got everything you need? Is there anything I can do for you?'

'You could give me some ideas for a day out in the city?'

'Sorry sir?'

'Never mind,' he put the brochures and leaflets to one side and stood up. 'Let's get going.'

He took his dinner jacket from the back of his chair and slipped it on. 'Andrea, I must say you look very nice this evening. That's a new dress isn't it?'

Andrea smiled at the compliment. 'It is, Mr Kaiba, yes.'

'And new shoes? I take it you're trying not to scuff them before our guests arrive?'

'Well, Mr Kaiba,' Andrea said, pretending to dust them off slightly, 'one likes to make an effort for such events.'

OooooO

Mai Valentine was making a big effort, not that she would ever admit it to Seto. She'd spent the day shopping and had returned with just enough time to shower and get ready. She was feeling pretty pleased with herself as she hummed along to the radio and applied her makeup. The dress that she had bought was laid out on her bed next to an exorbitantly expensive pair of shoes and a ridiculously small, but perfectly matching, clutch bag. She'd agreed to buy the bag after some ear twisting from Téa (her long distance fashion advisor for the day) who had told her that it was not acceptable to either carry her usual holdall bag or to force Seto to fill his pockets with her various bits and pieces. She'd already managed to fill the thing to capacity by putting in a lipstick, purse and cell phone, if she found she needed to carry anything else, she secretly decided, she'd get Seto to put it in his pocket – that was what men were for at such events after all.

She extricated her phone from the bag and turned off the music that she had been listening to. A car was due to come for her in about twenty minutes and she had one more little job to take care of before she could turn the music back on, whack the volume up and really get herself into the party spirit.

She bought up the number she wanted and gave an experimental cough. 'Hello,' she said to herself feebly. She shook her head, not enough. 'Hello?' she had managed to affect a break in her voice that time. Perfect. She pressed the green handset button and held the phone to her ear. If she had timed this right, Joe would be downstairs setting up the tills and the drinks optics in preparation for the evening shift. The phone rang five times before it went through to the message machine.

'Hello, Joe?' Mai started once the beep had sounded, 'I'm sorry, I'm not feeling too good (cough, cough) I won't be able to make it tonight. I hope I haven't let you down too (cough) badly. I'm going to bed now to try and shake it off so that I can hopefully (cough) be in tomorrow. Good (cough, cough) goodbye.'

Mai clicked the call end button and grinned to herself before flicking the phone spinning into the air, catching it deftly and shoving it back into the bag. Done.

Mai didn't doubt that Joe would be a bit annoyed, not least because the poker game scheduled for the previous night had been switched to tonight and she was definitely expected to be there. But really, if anyone was going to be annoyed about her missing the game it should be Mai herself, after all, having missed out on the winnings last night it meant that she had been forced to open up her 'nest egg' box and make a withdrawal, something that she was always loath to do. Still, she thought as she slipped off her dressing gown and began pulling on her cream lace topped stockings, it was only a one off and the overall effect should be worth it.

She turned the music back on and then wrapped a pale cream basque around her body, tutting as she began the near impossible task of attaching all twenty hooks behind her own back. Eventually, after nearly dislocating her shoulder in her efforts, she was able to smooth herself down and pick up the dress. As her hand passed over the clutch bag she realised it was vibrating. She drew her phone out and looked at the display: 'Joe – Boss'. Mai smiled and threw the phone onto the bed dismissively.

'Sorry, Joe,' she said, 'I'm far too ill to take your call right now.'

She stepped carefully into the dress and pulled it up, sliding her arms through the little cap sleeves. She reached behind herself again and pulled up the long zip and then turned to look at herself in the long mirror. It was a long cream dress that hugged her curves in the bodice before widening out in the skirt. A trail of embroidered black flowers wrapped itself around her, starting at the left shoulder and then trailing down to taper off at the hem which pooled slightly on the floor as she stood without shoes on. The neckline curved down from her shoulders in a wide and rather elegant way, disguising her cleavage and accentuating her shoulders and neck – at least that was how Téa described it when Mai had sent her a picture from her phone. She twisted herself one way and then another and then put her hand on her hips and grinned at herself.

'_Damn_ I look hot!' she stated happily before becoming aware of a muffled buzzing noise coming from the bed. She reached over and held up her phone just as the buzzing stopped.

'Ugh! Joe!' she hissed irritably at the phone's screen, 'I'm not coming tonight! Get over it already and think of all the money you'll save by not losing it to me.'

Mai was about to shove the phone back in the clutch bag when the screen lit up again announcing a voicemail message had been received.

Mai slipped her shoes on and picked up her bag as she accessed the phone message from Joe. Not that she really cared much for what he had to say but his persistence did seem a little unusual, even for him.

'Mai, why the hell aren't you answering your phone?' Mai frowned, rather than sounding annoyed Joe actually sounded anxious. 'Look I don't know if you're really ill or not, somehow I doubt it, but there's something you should know.'

Mai began walking slowly through to the dark living area, heading to close the curtains before turning on the lights as she always did. As she walked she felt her stomach fluttering in an unpleasant way.

'I was speaking to Elaine earlier,' Joe continued, 'she was working the lunch shift today. She said that there was someone in the bar asking after you.'

One of Kaiba's men, Mai told herself quickly, ignoring the fact that Seto now had her home address and cell phone number so would no longer need to be digging around. She shut the last of the curtains and walked over to the kitchenette to flick on the light switch.

'I wouldn't bother you with this only-,'

Mai looked around the apartment, reassuring herself that she was alone.

'only he mentioned the Icarus. I think that my brother-'

Mai dropped the phone on the counter where it bounced and fell to the floor with a clatter.

In her tiny apartment Mai could quickly see that everything was in place, the mess in the kitchen was her mess; the disordered arrangement of the furniture was her arrangement. Nothing visible had been taken - but there was something new.

On the small coffee table there was a duelling card, placed face down. Mai forced herself to walk to it. She bent down and flipped it over quickly. It was one of her harpy ladies. That it was her card and not a copy was certain as soon as she picked it up and smelt the faint traces of perfume. Its presence on the table could only mean one thing and if they'd been able to get into her apartment and then get hold of this card from her secure safe box…

Mai turned sharply and moved to the false wall. She yanked at it with all her strength and stood looking into the tiny hidden room. All still looked just as she had left it. She knelt down not giving a thought to the dust that smeared itself darkly across the delicate cream. She crawled under the desk and took out the two boxes. She opened the box for her duelling deck first and felt a strange sense of relief when she found it there. She fanned the cards out gaining comfort from their familiar designs. Then she noticed one that she knew didn't belong to her. It was a trap card that showed a large neon lit casino. Its name was 'House Wins'. On the back was some writing:

'Be sure to bring your deck, for old time's sake.'

Mai's hands began trembling.

She picked up the second box, her nest egg box, and opened it slowly. It was empty.

Breathing heavily, Mai forced herself to stand and switched on the computer. She tried not to think about what was happening as the computer booted up. She clenched her hands to stop them from shaking and managed, through force of will, to type in the web address for her on-line bank account. It too was empty.

'No,' she whispered, barely audible through her clenched teeth.

She brought up a second account and then a third. 'No!'

She slumped back against the wall feeling as if she'd been physically winded. 'No,' she repeated quietly as she slipped to the floor, 'oh no.'


	21. Comatose

_A/N: I really suffered from major writer's block on this chapter. Getting the sequence of events right and establishing the correct tone completely eluded me for about three weeks as I worked through re-write after re-write. I've now been tweaking it so long I'm finding it hard to tell if I've actually succeeded or not – do let me know!_

_In terms of the story as a whole, we're into the final section now. I estimate about six chapters until the end (though I tend to write more about things than I plan to, so it may be longer). I hope all of you who have stuck with it this long will bear with me until then._

_I hope you enjoy this chapter._

_Jensti_

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Comatose

A part of Mai's mind was aware of the knocking on the door when it first started. A part of her mind even contemplated the actions needed to get up and open it. But the thought processes became confused and distracted and fizzled out long before they reached her numbed limbs. She barely noticed when the knocking grew louder. When a voice began to shout her name she only blinked in a vague and distracted way as she sat, frozen to the spot.

Her mind was screaming and silent all at once. Occasionally she would think a little too clearly about what was happening and her eyes would blink and her hand would clench around her duelling deck and her breathing would become a little more strained as her throat constricted and she felt like she wanted to howl like an animal and never stop. But then the thoughts would slip from her mind again leaving a numbing blankness and the only sense left to her of time passing was the creeping cold that seeped into her fingertips and the increasing urgency of the knocking from the door.

OooooO

Seto took a small sip of his champagne as he surreptitiously glanced around the quickly filling ballroom located on the 80th floor of the Kaiba Corp. tower. His attention slipped easily from the conversation that was taking place around him. Jacob Lang had ingratiated himself into the discussion a few minutes previously, sidling up behind one of Seto's old business associates and laughing loudly when Seto had said something vaguely witty. Since then Lang had effortlessly manipulated the topic so that he could talk about himself and his own achievements; which he did with gusto.

From what Seto could make out, the evening was progressing nicely. The vast room had been decorated stylishly and the lighting was low and intimate. The far end of the room housed a stage that would later be Seto's platform for making a speech, officially welcoming everybody to the event and kicking off the charity auction section of the evening. Currently the stage was occupied by a live band that was playing a casual jazz music that blended nicely with the buzz of conversation.

To the left of the stage were the holographic displays of the orphanage building projects that Seto had committed himself and the company to in various countries around the world. The building projects were supposedly the whole purpose of the evening but Seto couldn't help but notice that his esteemed guests spent less time in contemplating this display than they did in choosing which canapé to delicately nibble on.

Amongst the guests milling around the display, Seto could just make out Mokuba who was shaking hands and chatting with various VIPs with a natural ease that Seto marvelled at. What Mokuba lacked in drive and ambition he more than made up for in charm and charisma; he had a knack of making people feel at ease even though, at just seventeen, it was really him that should have been feeling anxious in the first place.

As his sharp eyes scanned further around the room Seto caught sight of Roland haphazardly making his way through the crowds towards him. Seto frowned slightly wondering just what could have happened that meant Roland felt he had to disturb him directly. Whatever it was, it was unlikely to be good news.

He was jolted out of his contemplation by a sudden hand gripping his shoulder. He turned to see Jacob Lang grinning up at him, clearly midway through a story.

'And then Seto said to me – what was it you said Seto?'

Seto raised an eyebrow at such a casual use of his first name and glanced quickly down at the hand on his shoulder. Jacob's smile faltered slightly and he removed his hand quickly. There was a long moment of awkward silence before Seto looked up again to see Roland, still a little distance away, gesturing to him discreetly.

'Excuse me gentlemen,' Seto said smoothly giving a small smile, 'it seems duty calls. Enjoy the rest of your evening.'

The group watched as he strode away, deftly leaving his partially drunk champagne glass on the tray of a waiter as he passed.

As he approached his chief of security he didn't slow his stride and Roland, more than used to such things, quickly turned and began walking beside him, back in the direction that he'd come from.

'Roland?' Seto didn't look at him as he spoke, instead giving polite nods of acknowledgement to people who greeted him as he passed.

'Sorry to interrupt your evening, sir.'

'I'm sure you wouldn't if it wasn't important.'

'Umm, quite so, Mr Kaiba.'

'So?'

'Well, it's Mai Valentine – ' Roland was about to continue when he realised that Seto was no longer beside him. He turned and saw that his boss had stopped walking and was looking at him with an expression that was difficult to decipher. After a moment's hesitation his lips twitched into a wry smile and he began walking again.

'What's she done now?'

'Well, it's possibly nothing but the driver called - she's not answering her door.'

Seto's smile faltered to be replaced by a slight frown as he used a key card to open a door that led into a small room off the main hall. The lights flickered on automatically and the sound of the music and the talking became muffled as the door shut behind him.

'Not answering?'

'No, but he's pretty sure that she's in the apartment. There's music playing and the guy who owns the building said he saw her coming back in about two hours ago but hasn't seen her leave. He said she was carrying a load of shopping bags.'

'Grocery bags?'

'No, umm, those cardboardy type ones with the string handles, you know, the type that women get fancy clothes put into.'

Seto nodded distractedly at the description. 'And he can be sure she didn't leave?'

Roland shrugged, 'Pretty sure. The rent is due today apparently and he sits with the door of his apartment open to make sure he catches everybody. Miss Valentine paid in full earlier today so it's unlikely she would feel the need to avoid him.'

Seto's frown deepened. It was possible that Mai had changed her mind about this evening but the detail of her shopping bags seemed to imply that, two hours ago at least, she had been intent on coming and it wasn't as if he'd spoken to her in-between times to inadvertently upset her. Something about this didn't feel right.

'I took the liberty of calling her place of work; I spoke to her boss.'

'And?'

'He, err, he threatened me.'

'Threatened you? What did you say to him?'

'Nothing, sir. I called the bar and asked a woman who answered the phone whether Miss Valentine was due to work tonight. Suddenly Joseph Corelli takes the phone and tells me to leave Mai alone or he'll personally come after me. I didn't even get the chance to say a single word to him before he hung up. I wasn't sure quite what to make of it, so I came to find you.'

Roland lapsed into silence and waited. He recognised in Seto's expression the intensity of thought that was going on behind the calm exterior. He'd seen the expression a number of times before and it never led to anything good.

Finally Seto took a deep breath and looked directly at Roland. 'Get over there. If you can't persuade her to answer the door… break it down. Call me when you find her.'

Roland wasn't sure what Seto was thinking but he knew better than to ask. He'd been given clear enough orders and he trusted his boss' instincts ahead of even his own. He turned and left without another word.

Seto watched as the door swung slowly closed again, leaving him standing alone in the muffled silence of the room. He tried to clear his head of the thoughts that had filled his mind as he'd heard Roland's report. For the moment there was nothing he could do and his duty to the company was to get back into the party and fix that smile and shake those hands and make the small talk.

He hesitated as his hand touched the door knob and then, taking a deep breath he opened the door and strode out.

OooooO

In the event, breaking down Mai Valentine's door was far more of a challenge than anyone could have anticipated and, under other circumstances, may have been nigh on impossible. Whilst he didn't feel it, Roland had been lucky in that several of the heavy duty locks weren't engaged since Mai was actually at home; another was easily circumnavigated via a spare key the super had (and happily handed over once the right price had been reached) but that still left enough locks and chains in place to create a significant barrier to entry. By the time he had actually taken the door down (and a significant part of the frame along with it) a small crowd of tenants had gathered to watch the drama unfold. Roland had called for back up but in the mean time the driver was helping keep the onlookers at bay.

Stepping over the splintered wood, Roland felt a small knot form in his stomach. The sound of the up beat music playing in the bedroom to the right seemed at odds with the ominous quiet in the rest of the apartment. He was about to enter the room and switch off the stereo when he heard a faint rhythmic buzzing coming from the room to his left. Recognising it as the sound of a cell phone being called, Roland followed the noise. He rounded the corner and into a small living area. He could see the phone now, its screen flashing as it buzzed against the hard lino floor of the kitchenette. He stooped to pick it up; 'Joe – Boss' flashed on the screen. As he straightened he saw an alcove in the wall that housed two computers, one of which was running through a generic screen-saver. On the floor beneath the computer, with her knees tucked tight to her chest, was Mai Valentine.

She was so pale and so still that Roland's heart skipped a beat as he feared the worst. But then she blinked and her eyes shifted to meet his.

'You broke my door,' she stated quietly.

OooooO

'Bring her here.'

Roland shot a glance across the room to where Mai was still sitting on the floor staring into space. 'To Kaiba Corp, sir?' She didn't look much like she'd be up for a social even of any kind – she didn't even look like she was up for standing.

'Yes, use the back entrance and get her up to my office. I'll meet you there.'

'Do you think,' Roland started, keeping his voice low even though she showed no signs of hearing him. 'Do you think we should contact the police?'

There was a split second of hesitation from the other end of the line. 'No. I've had far too many dealings with the police recently and, knowing Mai, I seriously doubt she'd want them digging into her personal affairs,' in the background noise Roland could make out the sound of someone calling Seto's name. 'Look, I've got to go. Call me when you're here.'

The line went dead.

OooooO

Seto dutifully smiled and shook the hand of the lady who approached him even as he hung up the phone, but rather than engaging in the conversation she clearly wanted to have, he deftly sidestepped and strode past her; his smile instantly vanishing the second he knew his face couldn't be seen.

He gave absolutely no thought to her opinion of his behaviour, nor to the opinion of anyone else he pushed past as he made his way across the vast room. His thoughts were on Mai. Roland's call had been a relief in one sense; he knew where she was and that she was physically unharmed. However, the description of Mai, sitting comatose, unwilling or unable to engage in conversation, made him feel very uneasy. Clearly something was going on and until she was safely at his offices, he wouldn't feel completely in control of the situation.

Finally locating the person he was looking for, Seto altered his course and headed purposefully towards his younger brother. Mokuba, as if sensing Seto's approach, turned slightly, his smile freezing in place for a brief moment as he caught his brother's expression. He turned back to the group of people he had been talking to and made a brief excuse before walking forward to meet him. Together they walked to a quieter part of the room where the low lighting allowed them a low profile.

'Is there a problem, Seto?'

'Possibly,' Seto said as he glanced around him making sure there was no one close-by. Satisfied he turned back to Mokuba, staring at him in an intense way that Mokuba knew meant trouble. 'I need to know if you would be willing to make the speech later on.'

Mokuba's eyes widened in surprise, 'Where are you going to be?'

'Close-by, but something's come up. I may not be on hand when the time comes and I need to know if you'll cover me.'

'Well, yeah, sure. What's going on?'

'Nothing for you to worry about,' Seto shook his head, 'honestly,' he added with a small smile as Mokuba scowled darkly. 'This time it's not me that's in trouble. I promise.'

Mokuba still looked uneasy but he didn't press for any more answers.

'Andrea had a copy of my speech if you want to use it.'

'Nah,' Mokuba said after a moment's thought, 'I can put something together. No offence big brother but your speeches tend to be a bit…'

Seto raised an eyebrow as he waited for the verdict.

'Melodramatic,' Mokuba concluded with a nod, satisfied that he'd found the right word.

Seto made a sound that lay somewhere between irritated, amused and surprised; he'd always felt that his speeches added a certain striking emphasis to events. 'I'll try to make sure I'm around to see how it should be done then.'

'You really should,' Mokuba teased, grinning widely. After a moment his expression became more serious. 'You promise you're not in danger? You'd tell me if you were, right?'

'I'm not in danger, nor are you and nor is the company,' Seto said with conviction. 'I'm not sure what's going on yet but I'm pretty certain that, for once, it has nothing to do with magic, company takeovers or card games.'

Mokuba grinned again. 'That'll make a nice change,' he said.


	22. Only

Let me start with an apology. Not only has it been a very very long time since I last wrote but, as VampireDiaries pertinently pointed out, I left everyone in the midst of confusion over what has actually happened to make Mai so upset. This chapter will at least answer that. Time, which was always a little tricky to find when I had the one child, seems to have evaporated entirely with the arrival of the second. Happy times indeed but not exactly conducive to writing. As work is about to start up again after the glorious maternity leave, things aren't likely to get better quickly but, to put it in a way I know a lot of you would understand, if I was to never finish this story I would be extremely disappointed with myself, and far more disappointed than I'm sure any of you would be ;) So, continue to watch this space. I'll get there, I promise. I just hope you think it's worth it.

Thanks,

Jensti x

* * *

Only Money

Mai's head was starting to clear. The chaos of her thoughts before were beginning to settle into something resembling a plan. She had started to become aware of her surroundings as she sat in the back of the executive car that had been sent to pick her up; her initial panic subsiding as she recognised the man beside her as one of Seto's employees. She guessed at what was happening and determined that there was no point in arguing. If Seto wanted her at Kaiba Corp. then she may as well go - it had to be better than being in her apartment with the stark evidence of what had happened staring her in the face, and, if she was honest with herself, she really wanted to see Seto; feel the comfort of his strength and calmness. It was only when she was helped gently from the car that she realised that she was clutching tightly to her duelling deck. She looked at it in her hand and felt at once comforted and disquieted by its presence.

The man led her up to Seto's now familiar office and indicated that she could sit down on the couch but Mai remained standing. He hovered for a moment as if unsure quite what to do with her before leaving the room. Mai could hear him talking but couldn't make out the words. She moved to stand in front of the window but with the lights on all she could make out was her own reflection. She looked at herself closely, in the ghostly glass image it was easy to believe that she could have just stepped from the gala ball that was taking place downstairs. Without the benefit of detail everything looked just like it should do, like her life hadn't just been stopped in its tracks.

A sudden furious wave of anger washed over her. It wasn't fair. She had thought that getting away from her apartment would distract her from what she'd lost but it only made it worse. Her apartment showed her what she had physically lost but being here, in Seto's office, made her realise just what else she was likely to be losing. She clenched her fists and felt the edges of her deck press painfully into her palm. The sensation seemed to clear her mind even more. Her anger focussed on one point, one man. She turned purposefully towards the door knowing what she had to do and knowing that she would have to get out of the building before-.

'Seto!'

He was standing, framed by the doorway, a look of uncharacteristic concern etched on his face.

'Mai?'

She looked at him for a moment in stunned silence before frowning darkly.

'Seto, you should go,' she waved her left arm expansively towards the door as she slid the duelling deck surreptitiously onto the desk beside her. 'It's bad enough that I'm having a crappy night but I don't want to be responsible for dragging you away from your gala ball.'

Seto blinked in surprise. From Roland's description he'd half expected to find Mai in tears or, if she talked at all, speaking in the low whisper of someone who was in shock. Instead she seemed not only perfectly cogent but positively animated.

'The ball's not really a big concern right now,' he said after a moment, 'most of the guests have had enough free champagne that they won't even notice I'm gone. I'm more interested in what's going on with you?'

'Nothing,' Mai said quickly, 'nothing that I can't handle.'

'Roland said-,'

'Roland? Is that the guy who broke my door?' she waved her hand dismissively. 'I wouldn't believe everything he says. He seems the sort to exaggerate.'

Seto, who did implicitly believe everything Roland said, frowned. 'Mai-'

'Look Seto, I'm fine,' she said with forced brightness, 'I had some stuff stolen from me that's all. But, hey, we live in New York, right? It's hardly going to make the headline news.'

'Some stuff?'

'That's right. Just some stuff.'

'Roland said that everything seemed to be there, I mean the TV, stereo-'

To his surprise, Mai burst out laughing. She laughed long and hard but with an edge of hysteria that disturbed him. She sat herself down on the couch and looked up at him through glimmering eyes. 'Christ, I couldn't pay someone to steal _that_ crap,' she said eventually.

'Not the TV and stereo then,' Seto noted, his cold tone cutting through Mai's giggles. 'So tell me, when you say your 'stuff'...?'

Mai hesitated for a moment. Her smile faltered and disappeared. The idea that this might have been a simple burglary, that something as simple as a stereo might have been taken had momentarily transported Mai to a more straightforward world. Now, coming back to reality once more, she felt the horrible truth twist her stomach painfully. 'My money,' she said giving a forced casual shrug, 'some money I was saving up has been taken.'

Seto wasn't quite sure what to say. Mai's mood, which seemed to be even more inscrutable and changeable than usual, was clearly masking deeper feelings. He knew that she was desperate for him to drop the subject but he was now absorbed by a curiosity that surprised him. Usually, if someone didn't want to tell him something, he felt that was their choice. As long as it didn't affect him directly he generally didn't give a damn. However, he was forced to admit to himself that whatever was going on with Mai _was_ affecting him directly. He _did_ give a damn but he was at a loss as to how to get her to open up to him. Psychological games were hardly his forte, unless you counted his business dealings but then his power plays hardly embodied the subtlety and sympathy that his current situation clearly required... but they did get results.

'Well, you know,' he started with a studied indifference, 'it is only-'

'Oh, no. No you don't,' Mai rose suddenly from the couch her voice edged with a cold anger. 'Don't you dare try and tell me it's only money. You and I both know that's bullshit! It's not - it's never _only_ money. I worked for that money - I worked damned hard and I've made sacrifices. I live in a shitty apartment and work a shitty job just so that I can keep adding to it. And it's all in the hope that one day I can get enough to be able to turn around and show people what I've made of myself. That my life isn't just a complete shambles. That not all of the decisions I've made have been a complete disaster. That I'm worth something. That - that...' Mai's fierce expression faltered and she waved her arms helplessly in a frustrated attempt to articulate her feelings. In the end she let her arms fall to her side and took a deep breath before looking back up at Seto with an icy glare. 'It was all I had to show for my life. So don't tell me it's only money - please.'

Seto met her glare calmly, un-phased by her reaction. Though the strength of her feelings were more than he had anticipated, they only confirmed his suspicions about the situation she was trying to hide from him. 'How much are we talking about, Mai?'

Mai continued to glare at him though much of her outward anger was really frustration at herself for having let her emotions get the better of her. 'If I tell you-,' she started but realised that adding stipulations would only lead to further question so stopped herself. She took a deep breath. 'We're talking in the region of eight hundred and seventy-nine thousand dollars.'

Seto's eyes widened. 'You- you have how much?'

'_Had_,' Mai interjected coldly, 'we mustn't forget the past tense now, must we?'

'But that's – that's a lot of money!'

'I told you I was saving.'

'And you keep - kept that sort of money lying around in your apartment?'

Mai raised an eyebrow. 'I'm not a complete moron. I had a couple of thousand at the apartment but most of it was in savings accounts; off shore bank accounts; a lot of it was in various online gambling accounts.'

'And it's all gone.'

'Yes.'

'All eight hundred –'

'And seventy-nine thousand, two hundred and forty three dollars – yes,' she looked at Seto's shocked expression. 'You can perhaps understand why I'm a little pissed.'

Seto turned and paced across the room, trying to take in what he'd just heard. Surprising - the woman was just constantly, unbelievably, astonishingly surprising.

'Mai,' he said sharply after a moment's pacing, 'who would have known how to gain access to _everything_? I mean, even your apartment, Roland said it was like a fortress trying to get in there.'

Mai shook her head irritably, she'd known this would follow. 'I don't know.'

'Well, who knew you even had that much money?'

'I don't know.'

'Mai -'

'Seto!' she almost shouted his name, stopping his pacing in its tracks. 'I'm telling you I don't know. Okay?' she sighed and let her shoulders slump. 'Look, I'm sorry you've been dragged into this. I shouldn't have let them bring me here. I just - I wanted tonight to be something good, something special, I got myself properly dolled up and everything,' she ran her hand through her hair and then slumped down onto the couch, 'but it's not quite turned out as I'd hoped,' she looked up at him with an apologetic smile. 'I'm sorry.'

He stared at her for a long moment feeling frustrated with her evasive answers and having a hundred more questions to ask. But now he looked beyond the weariness in her eyes. He saw the effort behind the hair and the makeup and he remembered what high hopes he had also had for the evening.

'You do look lovely,' he said eventually.

She smiled at him warmly. 'You know what? I thought so too.' She looked across at the window, studying her own blurred reflection. 'I put this dress on in the shop today and I thought _**Mai Valentine, you look nice**_. I even thought, just for a moment, that it suited me - this dress; this classy, stylish dress, made me feel like I could fit in at your fancy gala ball, that I could stand next to you and people would think, _hey there's a lady whose life is all figured out,_' she smiled again. 'What a joke, huh?'

'Mai-'

'Look at me,' she said shaking her head as she looked down at herself. 'I've not been in the dress much more than an hour, and it's creased to hell, smeared with dirt, I think I caught the hem on something,' she plucked at the skirt of the dress distractedly, 'the whole thing's a _mess_,' she dropped the skirt back to the floor and looked up at Seto, 'but you know what? It suits me a lot better now.'

'You look fine to me - great in fact. You know I bet you could dust yourself down a bit and still outshine all of the other women in that room.'

Mai laughed, 'You're such a man! Men never notice the details, but I'd be willing to bet, if I went downstairs with you now, I wouldn't be able to get through the door before the women picked out every flaw I've mentioned, plus a few I've not even thought of.'

Seto raised an eyebrow and reached out his hand towards her, 'Want to put it to the test?'

It seemed like such a simple question but for Mai it represented something far more. To go with Seto now, even if it was to run the gauntlet of bitchy condemnation and fashion judgement that the gala ball would no doubt be, would be to push aside her problems and take an easier option. She looked closely at Seto, impossibly handsome in his dinner jacket, his blue eyes looking intensely into her own and a faint smile softening his usually hardened features and she so wanted to place her hand in his own. She even lifted her right hand slightly to do so but then noticed the lines, still etched across her soft skin, from where she had been gripping her duelling deck.

She sighed and shook her head, 'Look, Seto. I kinda wiped out to be honest. It's been - a bit of a shock.'

Seto withdrew his hand. 'Of course. I can take you back to your apartment if you'd like - or my house? I have a nice guest suite which has never been used before.'

'No, I don't want to be any more trouble and you should get back to your ball. I'll just-' she lay down on the couch, kicking her shoes off and tucking her legs up as she gave an expansive yawn, 'lie down here for a bit. If that's okay with you?'

'Of course.'

Mai curled up on the couch turning her back to him. Seto looked at her still form for a few moments longer before he walked to the lights and turned them off, plunging the room into near darkness. He then took one of his dueling coats from the wardrobe and draped it across her gently.

Mai shifted slightly and made a satisfied murmuring sound. 'Thank you, Seto,' she said in a voice barely above a whisper, 'thank you for everything.'

Seto frowned. For all that she seemed to be just on the brink of sleep, he couldn't help feeling that her words had sounded almost like a goodbye.


End file.
